Bad Home Selling Advice to Avoid
Knowing what not to do when selling a house is critical.
There is a lot of advice out there about selling your home—and a lot of that advice you would do best to ignore.
You want to sell your home for the best possible price in a reasonable amount of time. To accomplish your goals, you need to do what works and avoid doing the things that will make selling your home harder.
From being a top Realtor for the past thirty-eight years there are many things I have learned along the way. As someone who advises my clients daily, there are somethings you should not do when selling a house.
Below are some of the biggest myths about selling real estate. Some homeowners have come to believe these myths are true.
When you follow the worst home-selling advice, you often end up with the worst possible results. A home that didn’t sell and caused you a lot of stress in the process!
Don’t make any of these top home-selling mistakes! As you relocate, buy, and sell property, you learn many things.
As a first-time home seller, you don’t have the experience to fall back on. Therefore, the tips you find here will go a long way to ensuring a successful real estate transaction.
Let’s look at what not to do. You’ll increase your odds of having a successful sale.
1. Selling For Sale By Owner Is Easy and Will Save You Money.
On the surface, for sale by owner appears to be a cheaper alternative to using a real estate agent.
You avoid paying the agent’s commission, so why wouldn’t you get more money from your sale? In reality, the final price paid for a home can vary considerably based on numerous factors.
An excellent real estate agent will be doing everything possible to boost the price of the home, but on your own, you may not be able to achieve the same goal.
Practice makes perfect, and a great agent typically has much experience. It is unlikely that you can hit all the right notes.
Even if you can market to the right buyers, determine what improvements give the most bang for the buck, and negotiate effectively to drive the price higher, you will have to do much more work than a practiced agent.
I understand that it is exciting to think about the possibility of saving thousands of dollars. If you are going to try selling on your own, at least put the odds in your favor.
Suppose you must sell FSBO due to financial circumstances, at least understand how to sell a home without a Realtor. Take the advice to heart. Do what is needed to get your home sold for sale by the owner. The tips mentioned in the article will go a long way to increasing your odds of success.
2. Zillow Zestimates Are an Excellent Way to Price Your Home.
One of the things sellers must know is how crucial pricing is to the process.
Price estimates from sites like Zillow are excellent for a general overview of what your home might be worth, but they are inadequate to price a home for sale.
Part of what makes an experienced agent so desirable is their ability to compare one home to numerous others based on years of experience and use data and instinct to price a home for sale.
The best real estate agents know how to select appropriate real estate comps and put them into a comparative market analysis.
If the price is too high, the home won’t sell and may sell for less than it could have months later. The price is too low, and you lose money. There is too much at stake to trust a free calculator on a website.
Zillow is a valuable site for looking at and researching homes. Far too many believe, however, that the Zillow Zestimates are accurate. Using this to price your home can cause your asking price to be way off the mark.
It should be clear that none of the online value estimators, including Redfin, is accurate enough to trust for proper home pricing.
Selling as a for-sale-by-owner and pricing a home using an inaccurate Zillow value estimate often go hand in hand.
Never rely on an online valuation tool to give you an accurate estimate of your home’s value. Instead, seek out a top local real estate agent or an appraiser.
You will dramatically increase your odds of pricing your home correctly.
Remember that the wrong asking price is the number one cause of home sale failure!
3. Only Sell Your Home in The Spring.
Selling in spring is the most popular choice, and for good reason. In most areas of the country, there are more buyers than at any other time. However, different seasons also offer opportunities.
Different types of buyers come out in other seasons, buyers that may be primed for buying and willing to pay what you are asking.
There is no need to wait for the perfect season if you are ready to sell. Some properties might do better in one season than another.
Selling a waterfront home in the summer would be a prime example. If you live on a lake or ocean, this season offers one of the best times to showcase what makes your property unique!
Home Selling Tips For Each Season
Knowing the best and worst months to sell a house in your location is essential. This will help you understand when you’ll likely maximize your profit.
However, when you’re buying and selling in the same environment, it may not make as much of a difference. Whatever you decide, these tips can help you make it happen with the best results.
- Best home selling tips for winter. While there are typically fewer buyers in the market during the winter months, there are also fewer homes for sale.
- Best home selling tips for fall. Fall is a perfect time to sell your home.
- Best home selling tips for spring. Spring is the prime-time home-selling season in most areas of the country.
- Best home selling tips for summer. Depending on your location, summer can be a fantastic time to sell a home.
4. Avoiding Making Improvements and Let The Buyer Decide
Part of understanding how to sell a house is knowing what you should and should not do.
If you avoid making any improvements to your home before you put it on the market, you may miss out on easy money. However, you don’t want to start renovating randomly.
Specific improvements are ideal for getting more money back or improving the odds of making a sale. The best way to determine what will help your particular sale is to talk to a local real estate agent who knows your area. They should be experienced in selling your type of home.
Some sellers are in a position to make financial changes but don’t for various reasons. This can often cause the seller to lose thousands of dollars they could have put in their pocket by making a few sensible changes.
On the other hand, knowing what not to fix is just as vital. You don’t want to spend money on things with little return on investment. I see this frequently from homeowners. Getting advice beforehand is always wise with home sales.
I recently had a client who replaced their old carpet with Pergo flooring and added wallpaper to a couple of rooms. Unfortunately, the owner thought these ” improvements” were good things. Unfortunately, they were the exact opposite of what today’s buyer wants.
5. Thinking Home Sale Preparation is a Waste of Time
A lack of preparation is right at the top of the list of things not to do when selling a home. Some sellers think the market is hot, so I don’t need to bother. The house will sell no matter what.
Folks, not staging a home is dumb. Often, the little things will put much more money in your pocket. Take the time to make your property presentable. Start with the curb appeal and then move inside and do the same.
A study from The University of Texas at Arlington reported that curb appeal could improve your property value by up to 7 percent. In my years of selling, I have noticed a distinct pattern of homes selling for more. Pride of ownership does a lot for home values.
Don’t neglect your home’s exterior. Clean up leaves or snow and arrange outdoor furniture neatly to showcase the space’s entertainment potential. Clean up and edge your flower beds. Mow and fertilize the lawn. Clean the gutters.
These Small Things Can Go a Long Way
- Declutter: Removing personal items and unnecessary clutter makes your property feel more spacious. It allows buyers to imagine their belongings in the space.
- Fresh Air: Open windows before showings to freshen the air. A clean, fresh-smelling home feels more inviting.
- Deep Clean Everything: The importance of cleanliness is crucial. Every part of your home should be spotless. Hire a professional cleaner if you need to. It will be worth the cost.
- Rearrange Furniture: Consider the layout of your rooms. Do they feel cramped and crowded? Adjusting the arrangement to create a more social, inviting space can help buyers envision themselves in the home.
- Go Neutral: Neutral color schemes appeal to a broader audience. Repaint bold walls with soft, neutral tones to make spaces more pleasant and inviting.
6. The Agent You Pick Isn’t Crucial – They All Do The Same Things to Sell a Home.
All real estate agents are not equal. Sure, they may all be happy to try to sell your home, put your property on the MLS, and collect a commission if somebody buys it.
But if you want to get the best possible price for your property, it will take much more than creating a listing and collecting a check.
Knowing how to pick a real estate agent is vital to your success.
A good agent will have an extensive plan primed for marketing your home. You need to attract the right buyer and convince that buyer that your home is worth your asking.
Doing so requires experience, marketing savvy, negotiating skills, extensive market knowledge, the ability to price the home right the first time, and much more.
Do your research and interview multiple agents before you choose someone. Asking Realtors the right questions when selling is crucial.
Find a professional who has a documented history of recent sales and sales and demonstrates an ability to sell homes for a price near the original asking price.
When selling a home, one of the most essential aspects any homeowner should look for is accurate pricing.
Who wants to list their home for sale only to discover that the price they expected to sell it was unrealistic?
Having been a real estate agent for the past thirty-eight years, one of the first things I do every day is check the local market update. It is shocking to see how many price reductions there are daily.
When there is a price reduction, it says one thing – the home was not priced correctly!
Not accurately pricing your home out of the gate is a surefire way to sell it for less than if it was priced appropriately. Don’t make the mistake of choosing a real estate agent based on an unrealistic sales price.
Other sellers will go with a flat fee MLS real estate agent without sound pricing guidance – another HUGE mistake!
Folks, this happens all the time! Over the years, I have often been asked to rescue a seller after the prior agent failed.
7. Open Houses Are Necessary to Sell a Home.
Realtors pumping up the necessity of an open house are also telling one of the biggest lies in the real estate industry! Open houses are not needed to sell a home and have significant downsides.
Any real estate agent who tells you otherwise is concerned with one thing—their ability to prospect for future business.
While open houses may be one of the most recognizable activities in a real estate agent’s toolbox, the fact is that an open house may do nothing to sell your home.
Open houses attract many people, but not necessarily the people you want coming through your door. Anyone can attend an open house.
Curious window shoppers, nosy neighbors, people without the income to buy, and even potential burglars and criminals – open houses invite everyone in the door. There is no screening.
Your agent’s time would be better spent finding genuine buyers with the resources and the desire to buy your home. A serious buyer looking to find a house will always schedule a showing.
A buyer scheduling a showing will be pre-approved for a mortgage. The odds of everyone coming through an open house being qualified are laughable.
Listening to an agent tell you an open house is necessary is some of the worst home-selling advice. Are open houses worth it? NOPE!
8. The Listing Agent Needs to Accompany All of The Showings.
Though #7 on this list of the worst home selling advice, requiring accompanied showings of your home will surely be one of the leading causes of hindering your sale.
Unfortunately, some sellers mistakenly believe that having the listing agent in attendance increases the odds of success.
I’m sorry, that’s not the case! Accompanied showings can hinder a home sale, and your agent doesn’t need to attend.
Real Estate agents do not talk people into buying a home. Buying a home is an emotional decision.
Usually, within five minutes of walking through the door, a person can tell if they are interested in buying.
Many owners are under the false assumption that if the real estate agent is there pointing out some feature like a security system, central vacuum, or something else, it will make a difference. Fat chance!
Many buyers and their agents detest the listing being around for a showing.
For one, they can’t speak freely with the listing agent hanging over them. Have you ever walked into a store only to be attacked by a salesman asking if you needed help? Was it a turn-off? Of course it was!
An accompanying showing should be necessary only when selling a luxury home with significant valuables left out in the open.
Part of the reason it is so important to take your time choosing an agent is that you need someone you can trust to represent you.
If you have made a happy decision, you can feel confident that your agent has your best interests in mind. Instead of attending every home viewing, your agent may be better utilized in other ways.
Every agent’s productivity would suffer if all real estate showings were accompanied. This is why we use lockboxes. Think about this: How would the agent be working on selling your home if they were accompanying the showings of every other property they were marketing? They wouldn’t be!
Final Recap
A lot of bad real estate advice turns from a myth to reality in some people’s minds. If you fall into the trap of believing some of these falsehoods, you’ll only increase your likelihood of disappointment.
Avoiding these pitfalls will leave you better positioned for a successful real estate transaction.
Additional Helpful Home Selling Resources
- Expert home selling strategies – see some helpful advice from Paul Sian on selling a house.
- Common real estate myths – Kyle Hiscock has shared some myths surrounding real estate visually at Slideshare.
Use these additional resources to make sound decisions when selling a home.
About the Author: Bill Gassett, a nationally recognized leader in his field, provided information on what not to do: the worst home-selling advice people believe. He is an expert in mortgages, financing, moving, home improvement, and general real estate.
Learn more about Bill Gassett and the publications in which he has been featured. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-625-0191. Bill has helped people move in and out of Metrowest towns for the last 38+ years.
Are you thinking of selling your home? I am passionate about real estate and love sharing my marketing expertise!
I service Real Estate Sales in the following Metrowest MA towns: Ashland, Bellingham, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northborough, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sutton, Wayland, Westborough, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton, and Uxbridge MA.
Most of this is good advice Bill, but in this area of the country we find Open Houses very successful. Our last two listings sold within 24hrs. of the OH. Both to people who came to visit.
Please be wary of giving such strong advice when you don’t always know a specific area.
Les – sorry but the advice on open houses has nothing to do with the area of the country you live in. I hear this same excuse from real estate agents who live here in Massachusetts when speaking about open houses. The fact of the matter is those people you mentioned would have scheduled an appointment to see the property if they were serious buyers, regardless if there was an open house or not.
When will real estate agents wake up and stop misleading people about open houses! An open house is nothing more than opening up your doors to anyone with a pulse. It is not necessary for a seller in the digital age to have an open house. Real buyers schedule showings. But of course you don’t want sellers to know this because you wouldn’t be able to prospect for additional business.
By the way I am perfectly fine with that but please let the seller know the risks of having an open house. There are plenty of thefts that take place from doing open houses, especially when there are numerous parties going through all at once.
If open houses were outlawed tomorrow throughout the country there would be no fewer homes sold.
Bill, your strong opinions on open houses are ill-placed because the truth is more nuanced. The louder you shout doesn’t make your opinion more true!
It is impossible to deny that a percentage of homes are sold through open houses. The numbers don’t lie. Since this is clearly the case, many agents do not want to deny their homeseller clients this marketing opportunity.
Moreover, by condemning open houses simply as self-serving, you call into question the motives of good agents and thus diminish the profession in the eyes of the public.
Mark – what is more self-serving is agents who don’t explain the risks of an open house to a seller. The fact of the matter is a house will sell without an open house and the seller doesn’t have to put their property at risk. The open house is a self-serving activity to get more clients for other properties 99% of the time.
The thing is I have no problem with real estate agents doing open houses. What I have a problem with is agents who tell sellers they are necessary and don’t explain this risks. Telling the truth enhances the image of agents. It’s agents that don’t explain the whole truth who do clients a disservice.
Now Now Guys!! First off Bill. I really enjoyed your post and found it to be on point. I do, however, agree with Mark on the open houses and in some parts of the country being different. Both my sister and I are licensed Realtors but in different states.
I am in North Carolina and she is in southern Connecticut. For me in the Raleigh area, I really find them to be kind of a waste of time. Our area is booming, mostly due to incoming job transfers and the amount of high tech companies in the area. The vast majority of these people have agents in hand helping them and would find the home without it being open.
We also have tons of new construction with weekend Open Hoses. When I first started in the business 23 years ago, I was told they were important but can tell you, out of the many, many Open Houses I did, I can count on one hand how many the open houses sold as a result.
It was a better tool for me to pick up buyers. I rarely will do an Open House these days and then only on vacant homes. I do not want to be held accountable for items going missing or peoples homes being compromised because I can’t keep tabs on people with whatever true reasons for being there are walking through.
Now my sister on the other hand is just the opposite. She lives about an hour outside NY City where it is becoming a suburb of people who commute daily into NYC to work. People go to her area to investigate what is available as part of an evaluation process, not necessarily a need to buy.
They therefore don’t typically have an agent in tow so Open Houses are inviting to them. I always get on her case when she tells me she has two open houses scheduled for a weekend, but that is a large part of the business where she lives.
Just wanted to point out that I feel both of you are correct based where you are working.
Earnie – I am sorry but I hear the different area open house excuse all the time. You have not said anything in your comment that makes open houses different in one area or another. The same SERIOUS people who would visit an open house would also schedule an appointment to see the property. As for the rest of the people who come through “investigating” as you mention – why would the seller care to have them in their home?
The only reason agents ever argue about open houses is because they are a good prospecting tool for the agent. Put your home on the market at the right price and do a good job marketing it and an open house will never be necessary.
In this day and age, it is never necessary for a seller to put their valuables at risk.
New construction is a different story all together. You are marketing the builders product, options, and amenities that can be incorporated over the course of a whole neighborhood. There is a big difference between this scenario and an owner selling a re-sale.
Bill
I agree about Open Houses being more for agents than owners.
I am however highly in favor of Broker Open Houses. (Caravans in some areas) and holding an open house the weekend following the broker’s open.
It makes it very easy for agents to bring clients to see the newly listed property.
I have had a number of homes receive offers immediately by using this tactic.
Kaye – the thing is you can accomplish the same thing without an open house. What you get is those same agent who have interested clients. What you avoid is subjecting the seller to having people visit that don’t belong.
It’s interesting that not all real estate agents are created equal. It makes sense that some would be better for selling certain types of homes than others. I’ll have to remember this for selling my home because I want to make sure the process goes smoothly and quickly. Thanks for the tips, these have been very helpful.
I agree with all items. I especially agree with your thoughts Zillow and Open Houses. I is surprising how some buyers feel Zillow can replace a professional Realtor. Automation can not replace a local professional Realtor. Additionally, a Open Houses does not sell homes. Open Houses are for the Realtor’s benefit. But for some reason sellers feel Open Houses are necessary. I feel the the Broker’s Open is of more value.
Open House…..Just saying that out loud makes me think of desperation on the sellers part….If your not desperate, then you’ll take the extra step to pre-qualify people who want to see your house. That’s just my feelings on the matter. I may be wrong. 🙂
I agree about Open Houses being more for agents than owners.