Every year around mid to late January, some of my clients will begin to think about selling their home. While many people took advantage of the very strong seller's market in the Dallas area over the last 2 years, the timing was not right for others. Also, some people found it too challenging to find their next home and decided to stay put a little longer. Now as the market returns to a more "normal state" these are mistakes sellers should avoid.
1) Pricing your home like it's 2022 - Beginning in July 2022 with the mortgage interest rate hikes and throughout the rest of the year, buyer demand slowed significantly. New home builders that were attempting to build to meet the strong demand in 2021 and early 2022, found themselves with too many completed or soon to be completed homes they could not sell. Both home sellers and builders that wanted to sell their homes had to make price adjustments to attract buyers. Those sale prices are now the new "comparables" that will be used to set prices for the first quarter of 2023, which will then set values for the rest of the year as long as buyers perceive interest rates to be too high. Don't expect the same competing buyer frenzy and be prepared that buyers will want to negotiate terms that are beneficial to them to offset the higher interest rates.
2) Restricting showing opportunities - In the last 2 years, it wasn't necessary to have a home available for showings for most of each day and for multiple days. In fact, I had a Friday noon to Sunday strategy that included a public open house and showings during those days only. By the end of the day on Sunday, we had received multiple offers to consider so further showings were not necessary. Now the days on market returned to a normal window of 30-45 days. While you can still determine the length of period for showings each day, expect showings to be requested to occur during daylight hours during the week and on weekends. Not making your home available to showings will only add to the time your home is on the market.
3) Home presentation not maximized - I was amazed as were my buyer clients when looking at pre-owned homes that did not show well. I remember a few homes where the sellers didn't have beds made or dirty dishes from the sink cleared. In other situations, homes were not clean or heavily cluttered. We were more amazed that these same homes still received multiple offers largely due to the lack of available inventory. Even then they did not receive the highest sales prices but they did sell quickly and above their listed prices. As our market returns to pre-pandemic conditions, the basics of preparing your home to show its best is key to achieving the goal of the highest sales price in the shortest timeframe. Having your home staged or professionally cleaned can be overwhelming. Not to worry if I am your listing agent. I take care of that for you!
My clients lean on my 18+ years of experience to guide them when selling their home. In turn, I utilize my team and resources to create a strategically managed process that creates a much less stressful experience for home sellers without sacrificing any equity that they would have to forego if they used an "instant or guaranteed offer program. Let me do the same for you! Call me today to learn more.
