Avoid These Top Home Selling Mistakes!

Selling a home in a tight economy can been difficult and costly. Additionally, home sellers often set unrealistic expectations that can delay the selling of their home. Don’t be one of them!  The following is the first of a two part series of common mistakes to avoid.

1. Not Hiring a REALTOR®

Believing that you will save money by not hiring a Realtor® may end up costing you more. By hiring a Realtor®, you will be getting a professional that has knowledge of pricing, marketing, pre-qualifying potential buyers, access to the multi-list, knowledge of the legal documents, etc.

2.  Setting an Unrealistic Price

As part of their services, REALTORS® will help you determine a realistic price for your home by pulling comparable market data of other homes in your area that fit the same criteria and specifications as your home.  This will help you determine a competitive price for a house similar to yours in the same area. If your house is put on the market at a price that is felt to be too high, it will not be shown to potential buyers, and you will have missed your opportunity.  It will sit on the market with the rest of the inventory. 

3.  Expecting to Get Your Asking Price 

A REALTOR® will also assist you with having the correct expectations in terms of receiving the appropriate price for your home.  A common misconception is that you should receive your asking price or higher. That may have been the case in the past, but not today in the buyer’s market. Don’t reject an offer because it is not your asking price; that is what negotiations are for. 

4. Not Preparing Your Home for Sale 

An experienced Realtor® can make suggestions on how to make your home marketable and will do so before ever posting your home for sale. Look at your home as a potential buyer pulling up to the curb, walking to the door and into the home. At this point, it becomes necessary not to be defensive, but to listen to your Realtor’s® advise.  In the end, it may help to sell your house faster and at a higher price.    

5. Not Accommodating Potential Buyers 

It is important to know when to accept an offer “as is” and when to accommodate a request from a potential buyer in order to close the deal.  It is important to know when to accommodate a serious buyer and when you will just be wasting your time.  Price isn’t always the reason people don’t buy. Additionally, making too many concessions can leave you spending more than you make. 

Can you add to this list? What have been your experiences with home selling?

Be sure to check back next week for the second part of this blog series!

Navigating the “Minefield” of Real Estate

We have been focusing our blog writings on the necessity of having a lawyer involved in the real estate transaction.

We thought it would be great to talk with Mark Duffie, broker and lawyer for Lawyer’s Realty, about his pursuit in the legal field of real estate. The following is a Q&A on this topic.

What is it that appeals to you about the law, especially as it pertains to real estate?

With respect to the practice of law in general, the sense of problem solving and assisting others with legal matters is what drives me. 

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The sense of accomplishment is rewarding especially when it is done on someone’s behalf.  In the real estate field, you become a facilitator of transactions.  The structuring of the deal and the documentation often make or break the deal. 

What do you like the most about working with the law and real estate?

Real estate really provides an opportunity for attorneys to become very creative to meet the demands of the client.  The challenges involved with every transaction are unique as are the solutions.   The closing on a complicated well structured deal is what we real estate attorneys work for.  That is what makes real estate law so rewarding.

What are some of the legal “pickles” buyers and sellers  get into by not having a lawyer involved in the real estate transaction?

Legal pickles.  That is an open can of worms.  Most real estate agents and clients are not educated on fundamental contractual principles including breach and remedies. 

Buyers and sellers enter into agreements often times not knowing the implications given the circumstances.   When the transaction warrants, standard agreements need to be amended.  That is often times when the “pickles” occur. 

When a buyer acquires property, they do not just acquire bricks and sticks.  They acquire a bundle of legal rights of which they must become aware.  They need to be educated on restrictions, easements, clean and green as well as other acquired rights. 

The problems arise when these agreements are improperly drafted and these rights are not reviewed or improperly reviewed.   Specifically, I have seen sellers try to sell a property that was already subject to an option or buyers attempting to buy a property under a fictitious name. 

If you had to describe the real estate transaction in one word or one phrase, what would that word or phrase be?

Minefield! 

Click here to find out more about the legal/real estate relationship.