Phil Aitken
Phil Aitken
Owner/Broker

The Jacksonville Home Seller’s Guide to Avoiding the 3 Most Costly Mistakes When Selling a Home

The home selling process is complicated and usually requires the experience and expertise of a skilled real estate agent to ensure that you avoid making serious mistakes that could cost you valuable time and thousands of dollars. In fact, there are 3 most costly mistakes when selling a home that every home seller in Jacksonville, Florida, should be aware of which could derail the success of any home selling process.

Every home seller needs to be able to recognize these mistakes and understand how to avoid them. A report released by real estate industry experts entitled the 9 step system to get your home sold fast and for top dollar discusses the most common mistakes that a home seller might make throughout the course of the process and a system to avoid them. By adhering to this easy-to-follow guide, you can rest assured that you will get the maximum profit for the sale of a home in Jacksonville, FL.

The Jacksonville Home Seller’s Guide to Avoiding the 3 Most Costly Mistakes When Selling a Home
Avoid These Most Costly Mistakes When Selling a Home

Top 3 Most Costly Mistakes to Avoid

Although there are a variety of things that could potentially go wrong during the sale of a home, there are 3 most costly mistakes when selling a home in Jacksonville that home sellers often inadvertently make. They are quite common in the real estate industry, so home sellers should not feel too bad if they have made them, but it is best to avoid them at all costs.

An experienced real estate agent can also help to guide you through the home selling process and ensure that you avoid these pitfalls. Those 3 most costly mistakes when selling a home that home sellers in Jacksonville often make include:

  1. Forgetting About Who Is Looking to Buy a Home
  2. Scaring Potential Home Buyers During Showings in the Jacksonville Area
  3. Holding Back Vital Details from Potential Home Buyers

The best real estate agents are able to prevent their clients from making these deadly mistakes by providing them advice throughout every stage of the process. 

Most Costly Mistake When Selling a Home #1: Forgetting About Who Is Looking to Buy a Home

Think back to your own home buying experience. What were you thinking when you walked through a potential home for sale? Could you imagine yourself and your family living in that house for many years to come or were there too many personalizations from the home seller? Your memory of that experience and your answers to these questions should help to guide you when selling a home.

Before you start showing a home for sale, it is important to make sure the house is in its most pristine condition before potential homebuyers come over to see it. That means making minor repairs, scrubbing and cleaning, straightening things, and getting your house in tip-top shape. But it also requires the home seller to do something else – eliminate themselves from the house.

What does that mean? Simply put, you need to remove yourself and your family from the homebuyer’s eye. When a potential homebuyer comes to view the house, they want to see themselves living there and imagine all of their belongings in the house. If your family’s personal belongings are still there, this becomes much more of a challenge. 

Some critical steps to take prior to a showing include:

  • Getting rid of clutter
  • Removing photos of family and friends
  • Boxing up knick-knacks and other personal items 
  • Eliminating the odors from pets, cooking, and other strong aromas
  • Maintaining a minimalist approach with decorations

So, why is it so important to remove all personalizations?

It all comes down to the homebuyer’s eye. Some homebuyers may like to see a home decorated with personal items, even if the items don’t belong to them. It creates a sense of familiarity. However, other homebuyers want to have a more neutral palate to work with so that they can envision their own decor during a showing.

Eliminating your personal items also prevents the potential for homebuyers to judge the house based on your decor choices rather than the merits of the house itself. If they don’t like your personal style or, even worse, are offended by it, that could easily turn them away from your house.

To ensure that you can sell a house in Jacksonville, it should be completely neutral and open for a homebuyer’s interpretation as far as decor and personalizations are concerned.

Most Costly Mistake When Selling a Home #2: Scaring Potential Home Buyers During Showings in the Jacksonville Area

Homebuyers are poised to make a very large investment of their money and time when they come to view a house for sale. The last thing they want is to feel pressured by a home seller who is roaming around the house, listening to conversations, and trying to influence their opinions of the house. Think about the last time you bought a car at a dealership!

If they feel too pressured or stressed out due to the home seller’s presence, homebuyers in Jacksonville, Fl, are very likely to walk away without giving the house a real chance or making an offer.

To avoid the potential for driving away prospective homebuyers, it is best to remove yourself, your family, and your pets from the house. Allow your real estate agent to handle the showing so that homebuyers can give the house a thorough examination, ask questions, make comments, and get a chance to imagine themselves living there. That is much easier to do without the home seller being present.

Likewise, a pushy home seller may lead homebuyers to believe that something is wrong with the home. If you are trying to sell them on the house too strongly, they may take it as a sign of problems being hidden. 

If your real estate agent holds the showing, the homebuyers will have a much better chance of enjoying their experience in the house and considering making an offer. They will also be less likely to believe that there is a hidden issue with the house.

Most Costly Mistake When Selling a Home #3: Holding Back Vital Details from Potential Home Buyers

How much is too much? That is a question that we often ask ourselves in a variety of situations. In the real estate industry, less is definitely not more, especially when it comes to the information in the home listing. 

Remember, homebuyers are making a very large investment of their time and money with the purchase of a home in Jacksonville, so they want to have as much information about this purchase as possible. The more they know about the house, the more confident they will feel going into the sale. 

This means, as a general rule, your listing needs to be as forthcoming and informative as possible. Homebuyers want to make sure they understand the ins and outs of the house before they buy it, so your listing should answer as many of the questions they may come up with as possible.

The right real estate expert will be able to compile a complete listing package for you to ensure that you have the best possible chance of selling a home quickly and for the highest price. Additionally, a real estate agent will ensure that homebuyers have the option to take a packet home with them for further review following the showing.

With the best real estate agent, you can rest assured that your home will sell and that all of the details will be taken care of for you.

Rely on Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty - Phil Aitken Home Team to Get a Home Sold Fast and for Top Dollar

If you feel like you are prepared to enter the real estate market with your house in Jacksonville, FL, be sure to enlist the help of an award-winning real estate team to guide you through the whole process.

Our real estate team understands and is aware of all of these deadly mistakes that home sellers often make, and we are committed to making sure that you avoid them. We have a track record of selling homes in Jacksonville quickly and getting top dollar for them, and our team is dedicated to doing the same for you.

For more information on these deadly mistakes or to learn how our real estate team can work for you, call us at (904) 544-5252 or simply fill out the form below with the requested information. We can’t wait to help you with your next move!

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Phil Aitken, Owner/Broker
Phil Aitken is the Owner/Broker with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty - Phil Aitken Home Team and has over 13 years of Real Estate experience. Phil’s faith and desire for his family’s continued security fuel his business growth and leadership. The Phil Aitken Home Team continues to profoundly impact the people of Jacksonville via supporting several faith-based organizations. Phil gives back a portion of every real estate transaction to The Tim Tebow Foundation and Rethreaded. Find Phil's full story here.