5 of the Biggest Mistakes Buyers and Sellers Make

“Giving It Away”

The absolute worst thing a Seller can do right now is sell privately. Could you imagine selling a piece of artwork privately to a neighbor? You get the best price by letting the world know and creating a bidding war at auction. Sellers are getting lazy. Slow the process down. Stage it, market it, work it. Under Pricing and Under Marketing. We’ve seen Sellers sell a home as a pocket listing and sometimes leave 15-20% on the table.

Speed

We train our buyers to act with urgency. Offers need to be made immediately and with short acceptance periods. You have to be paranoid that someone is going to come in behind your back and outbid you. If you see a home at 11am, make the offer good until 5pm. Oftentimes, Buyer agents give 24 hours. If you are using the AS IS contract, it gives you a free right to cancel at your sole discretion and all deposits returned. A buyer not understanding the power of the AS-IS as a free option to cancel is a serious mistake.

Staging

Sellers don’t want to stage because it takes work. However, it can increase the value over 10%. Some are small things like a ratty doormat or plain doorbell. Others are strategic placement of furniture so one can visualize the view and space when coming in from the front door. Landscaping, an organized master closet, and less is more are key concepts. In a hot market like this the staged homes go at a higher premium.

Furniture

Both Buyer and Seller should always demand a written inventory of what is included in the sale. We always have our Sellers do this when we take the listing. It can be a pain to do but more deals are lost while tracking someone down when the Buyer is in love. It’s best for Sellers to always add a cost to the purpose price for furniture in case the buyer doesn’t want it. Last, there are no misconceptions at the closing tale with a written inventory.

Pre-Inspections

Sellers should always do this. A buyer is going to get a 100-page boilerplate inspection report and that causes anxiety immediately. There almost always are GFC outlets that aren’t working properly, AC differential and sliding doors that don’t close properly. Then you have surprises like mold or unbonded floor tile. The more you can make a Buyer feel like they are buying new construction with less on the inspection list, the better the chance of offers coming in higher, less cancellation risk, and less demand to fix something with the most expensive contractor under the sun.

Jeff Lichtenstein is the president and owner of Echo Fine Properties, a luxury real estate brokerage selling real estate in Jupiter and homes in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He has 20 years of real estate experience, has closed over a 1,000 transactions, and manages over 50 agents in a non-traditional model of real estate that mimics a traditional business model. Some publications he has been quoted in.

Feel free to ask him a question directly at [email protected].

Posted in Buying, Jeff's Journal, Real Estate Tips, Selling on January 15, 2022 at 8:11 am.

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5 of the Biggest Mistakes Buyers and Sellers Make