Starting out your journey in selling real estate is an exciting time, but every realtor has their own way of running their show. Sometimes, it can be hard to discern if you’re on the right track even when taking advice from other professionals within the space. To help you on your journey, here are some top things you can avoid when listing a property, in order to ensure the process goes even smoother.
Not being transparent
When it comes to disclosure, honesty is the best policy – and doing otherwise won’t just damage your reputation, but could land you and your client in legal trouble.
Disclose any and all issues that a property may have. This could be anything from cracks in the plasterwork to a leaky roof.
While it is the buyer’s responsibility to hire a licensed inspector to conduct an audit, you have a moral and legal obligation to ensure your client has provided details or any known problems with the property.
Being transparent about any problems can strengthen your reputation, as a positive experience with both seller and buyer leaves a lasting impression.
Not staging the property
A potential buyer’s first impression of a property is crucial – whether it’s in person or virtual. Decluttering and depersonalising are the main ways to stage a property and appeal to buyers.
It’s an obvious one, but a step many realtors ignore – make sure your client tidies their home! Pick up clutter, open up spaces, and clean every area of the home. Pay closest attention to the living room, kitchen and master bedroom, as these are the areas that buyers are more interested to see.
Next up is depersonalising. Remove personal items such as family photographs and personal belongings – the buyer wants to see themselves in their future home, not a stranger.
Having no photos
Including high quality visuals doesn’t just help potential buyers, it’s a way for you and your client to weed out any viewers that are unlikely to be serious about making an offer.
A study from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that 85% of homebuyers say that photos are the most important factor when looking for a home online, so using low quality photos and other visual assets could be detrimental to the sale of a property. Ensure your photos are high quality, and highlight the properties best features in the best way.
Photos aren’t the only way for potential buyers to see a property – expanding your visual assets to include a virtual tour and floor plan offers a much deeper understanding of the space, so people who enquire are more likely to be motivated buyers.
Overpricing
Yes, you want to get the best price possible for your client (and your commission!), but make sure you have a solid pricing strategy or the home could be sat on the market for a while.
Completing a thorough comparative market analysis (CMA) on the type of property and the area you are trying to sell will make all the difference when it comes to getting those potential buyers through the door to view. It will allow you to recommend a price to the seller that truly reflects the value of the property, offering them realistic expectations on the asking price with the analysis to back your recommendation up.
A competitively priced listing could also start a bidding war from keen buyers, which in turn could ensure your property sells for above asking price.
Not knowing the legal side
Going into selling real estate without full awareness of your legal responsibilities could result in you being sued, fined or facing other consequences.
While there is a lot of knowledge you need to gain your license, continuing your education after beginning your career and becoming a true expert in your field is what guarantees a transaction can go as smoothly as possible.
Ensure you refresh your knowledge of national and state e laws, and even any small local law that may be imposed on an area for every client you take on, as each situation is unique. It can be a big task to stay up to date, but it is vital to know.
Selling in winter
Winter is a tough season to try to sell a property.
During the winter months, the holiday seasons, shorter daylight hours (depending on where you are) and the less favourable weather that can occur all make it hard to attract buyers. The end of the year also brings expenses related to holidays and planning for the new year, so it is less likely that big decisions are made during this period.
Waiting until spring and summer come around may be a better bet, and should reduce the time a property spends on the market.
However, winter may bring fewer, but more motivated sellers as the need to move may be more urgent.
Being unaccommodating
Both buyers and sellers have busy schedules, and trying to align with both can be a challenge.
Having a rigid schedule, while convenient for you, can be inconvenient when it comes to accommodating buyers. Ensure you are flexible to maximise your opportunity to make a sale.
This means being flexible with viewing times, as well as providing floor plans and virtual tours to ensure enquiries are genuine – relying on in-person views without digital options can bring a lot of timewasters, which puts pressure on both you and your client. The more people that see the property, the more chances of offers you will receive.
Relying on word of mouth
While the world of mouth strategy can be useful, relying solely on this is detrimental and you should diversify your lead generation channels.
Ensure you combine your word of mouth marketing with other strategies such as posting on social media to showcase your services, using local listing sites and even paid marketing.
This means your portfolio will reach an audience wider than your personal network and give you the best chance for success.
Ignoring feedback
Learn, adapt, grow. Paying close attention to feedback from people who view your property is important – constructive criticism is an opportunity for growth.
This will help you identify where you can better present a property, or even adjust your selling strategy and client services for maximum results.
It’s encouraged to experiment from property to property as not every listing is the same, and once you find something that is working for both you and the specific property, you should be able to see the results come in and build a winning formula that brings long term success.
Not preparing for negotiations
After you’ve conducted your market research, discuss with your clients the range at which you think it’s best to sell their property at. This could mean managing sellers expectations, as often a property will mean more to them than the market value as it’s their home. While it is their final decision, remember that you’re the expert and backing up your recommendation with your CMA isn’t just to fairly price the property; it’s there to counter any lowball offers.
During the negotiation process, keep your client informed, and keep reminding them that the pricing strategy is there for a reason if they seem keen to accept an offer that isn’t right for the property.
All you need to know
Understanding what not to do is as important as understanding what to do. By following these simple “do nots” you can ensure you avoid any glaring pitfalls in the property selling process.
- Fully disclose any major property problems the seller is aware of
- Make sure you declutter and depersonalise a property
- Use great quality photos and other assets
- Do not overprice the property
- Make sure you are up to date on all local and state laws
- Avoid selling in winter
- Be accommodating to buyers
- Don’t rely solely on word of mouth
- Don’t ignore feedback
- Prepare appropriately for negotiations
Want to improve your property marketing, photography, virtual tours and floor plans? Book a demo with a Giraffe360 expert today.
