Avoid Costly Mistakes When Selling Your Home

Selling your home is one of the biggest financial decisions you will probably ever make. Following are the most common costly mistakes home sellers tend to make:

1. Not hiring a professional to sell your house: Home sellers who try to sell their houses themselves without the expertise of a real estate professional end up selling for far less than the fair market value.
2. Not staging your home: Showcasing your home is crucial to get the best price. Buyers need to be able to visualize how the home looks with furniture and how functional it would be for their own family.
3. Overpricing your home: Pricing your home based on what you want to net ends in failure. Sellers can control the "asking" price, but they don't control the "sales" price. Accurately pricing your home is an important factor to get the highest price.
4. Getting emotionally involved in the sale of the home. Once you decide to sell your house it's no longer your home - it becomes a commodity. Sellers cannot get emotional if buyers do not appreciate their home and cannot let their egos get in the way when negotiating. Try to create a win-win deal.
5. Failing to disclose issues in the house: Do not fail to complete the disclosures forms accurately. This mistake can be the most costly mistake a seller can make.
6. Over-improving your home: This happens with additions and upgrades that make the home stick out from other houses in the neighborhood. Sellers rarely recover the money spent for such remodels.  
7. Not getting your home inspected before listing it: Have a home and a pest control inspections done ahead of time, and get estimates for the repairs. It's always best to prepare for any potential problems.