Selling your home in the post-housing crash world can be more challenging than in previous times and the home seller should do as much as possible to avoid making mistakes that can prevent the home from selling or seriously affect the final home sale price. While no home sale will go off without a hitch, there are some frequently seen home sale mistakes that can and should be avoided if possible. This article identifies four common home sale mistakes – emotional attachment, listing the home before being ready, overpricing the home, being unrealistic about listing time - and gives advice on how to avoid them.

Emotional Attachment – One common mistake homeowners make is being too emotionally attached to their home. Too much emotional attachment to the home can lead to seller’s remorse or excessively emotional responses to buyer feedback or low offers. Home sellers must keep in mind that putting a home on the market invites feedback and that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. While you might love artwork and furniture, future owners may have different taste and may want to renovate or change the entire home. Don’t be too emotional about the home sale process and try to see things from the buyer’s perspective if possible.

Listing Home Before Ready – Another commonly seen mistake is putting a home on the market before the home is ready to be shown. Often a real estate agents or sellers eager to market and advertise the property to the public list the property for sale before pre-listing items are addressed. All sellers should consider a pre-listing home inspection and have their agent walk through the home and make pre-listing recommendations that pertain to condition. Once the inspection and home condition items are addressed, the home seller can have the home professionally cleaned and high resolution pictures taken. Finally, the seller can decide if staging the home for sale makes sense.

Overpricing The Home – another common home sale mistake is over pricing the home. Over pricing a home will dramatically reduce showings will in turn will lengthen the amount of time before offers are obtained. Over pricing also leads to increased days on market, low ball offers and inevitably to price reductions.

Being Unrealistic About Listing Time – As mentioned above pricing is directly related to days on market and real estate agents are able to calculate the absorption rate – the rate at which similarly priced homes sell in a specific real estate market during a given time period. The absorption rate in a given real estate market will give the home seller a general idea of how long it will take to sell their home at a given price. Most listing contracts are for 6 or 12 months and smart sellers know that in today’s real estate market selling homes take time. You can also review days on market info for comparable properties that have sold in your neighborhood recently. If the property ends up sitting on the market for more than 4-6 months it may make sense to withdrawal the property and relist since there can be a stigma attached to a properties that sit on the market for long periods of time.