I Goofed – Common Mistakes Sellers Make

I Goofed. Mistakes and Corrections often appear at the bottom of a news article.  Usually on page 62 in fine print the following week for no one to see.  Maybe in the Wall Street Journal that’s standard practice, but not here in Jeff’s Journal!!! I tell you right at the beginning of my heedless and slipshod ways. Pacy, Scott, David, and others all pointed out my blunder. All were quite kind about it and didn’t deflate my Sunday morning entirely.

As I told Pacy, I’m glad he was pacying attention.  (That was a purposeful typo!) See, I don’t use Chat GPT (I tried it out and it just sounds so Chat GPT).  My editor is overseas and sometimes I don’t get what I consider a good idea until the last minute.  Last week’s article came to me on Thursday as the new real estate numbers for May appeared.  Saturday morning I was frantically doing corrections.  So, the screw up happened. Yes, the closed sales activity dropped -11.7% in May 2025 from May of 2024. That part was correct.  But then the combinations of the beautiful mathematical minds of you Nash, Euclid, Newton, Einstein, and Turing proved they were paying attention in Algebra. There were 2,596 sales in May ( I accidently wrote 2,259) of 2024 and 2,291 sales in May of 2025. I’ve made other mistakes over the years. Once a postcard went out talking about some beautiful stained glass. Except it had a typo of ass instead of glass.

Since my job expertise is real estate, let me get to Sellers making mistakes because its happening a lot right now.

So, here are 7 tips if you are selling (or one day may decide to put your home up for sale) that will prevent you from having egg on your face like yours truly. Many of these are what I consider back to basics.  A residential real estate transaction is an infrequent purchase and oftentimes emotional so it’s key to go over the basics ad nauseam as people are not in rhythm. Let’s start with the real estate colonoscopy……

1. The Colonoscopy (Pre-inspection)

Sellers – it’s back to the basics.  Homeowners hate to do a pre-inspection. It’s like getting a colonoscopy. It costs money and you aren’t going to get anything good coming out of it. The Seller says, “let the Buyer pay for that and maybe I’ll fix some of those items.”   But in reality, you do get a lot out of the pre-colonoscopy and the colonoscopy itself.  Not only do you lose a few pounds but you find out if something is wrong before it becomes really wrong.

By doing a pre-inspection, the uglies all come to light.  It’s better to take care of the problem now than wait for later. Second, to that point, it’s better to fix something up with your contractor than be dictated to by the Buyer who might want it fixed the most expensive way. Third, some Buyers or one spouse of a Buyer might be nervous and just outright cancel even if the results aren’t so bad.  A typical inspection is over 100 pages. The girth of it terrifies some Buyers. Remember, Buyers purchase one out of eleven years on average, so this is all foreign to most. With plenty of other choices out there, cancellation of contracts are at a high right now. Last, Buyers love when a Seller does a pre-inspection. Meeting a Buyer at the front door and telling the potential new homeowners that the Seller did a pre-inspection ahead of time puts them at ease and often, offers come in higher as result.

2. Sorry Charlie -Slow Responders

To the above topic in #1, regarding pre-inspections, we put a home under contract last week. There became a point of contention over the AC and the SERS count.  The Seller had a price of $15,000 for a new unit.  The Buyer priced it at $22,000.  Our Buyer said, “let’s see what else was out there.” Out they went with our agent and bought a more expensive house that was in tip top shape. The Seller came back and said they were emotional and ready to accept the $22,000.  Now if the Seller did a pre-inspection, they could have repaired the item or replaced it, and it never would have been an issue. Furthermore, if they moved with speed and gave in to the $22,000, they would be shopping for a new home right now. Sorry Charlie.

3. Stage it NOW

Usually if we have a suggestion on staging it’s a good one.  Oftentimes Sellers want feedback before they do it.  My advice is it’s always good to listen to feedback and react to it. However, if it makes sense to stage from the beginning and not break the bank, go in and get things done at the start.

4. Seasonality Cares About You.

When you put your home on the market, you don’t care about seasonality. You just want your home sold. But Seasonality cares about you. Offers that come in during the off season or at the end of season need to be more carefully considered. Snowbirds and seasonal renters that purchase have flown away and “turn” is slower during the summer and fall months.

5. Time Travel

When I have a client I feel is making a mistake, I slow it down.  I ask my client if this deal falls apart, are you going to call me in a week and ask if the Buyer is still out there?  Or how would you feel if we were on the market three months from now?  Visualizing what the downside is oftentimes helps crystalize a decision and avoids a mistake.

6. 5 & 10 Rule.

This week I saw a deal collapse at the closing table. The reason why was they had less than 2% down.  One of the kids flew in from Portland Oregan the day of closing and just decided not to let their parents close.  The deposit was $10,000 on a $575,000 purchase. If there was $57,500 – Mom is closing no matter what the kids say.  I did a video you can watch here to explain the  5 & 10 rule.

Sometimes you can’t control this, but Sellers need to push for deposits with a low of 5% and up to 10%.  If the Buyer decides to walk and 10% is held up in escrow, it’s almost like who cares if they don’t close. 5% gets more iffy. Less than that and its Russian Roulette.

7. The Aisles

My biggest pet peeve and gripe with Sellers is pricing at oddball numbers outside of price parameters.  I call it the 25-50-100 pricing rule. I’ve written about it before, but I battle with this to no end and always have to go over it.  Read more on pricing properly.

Now, when it comes to picking your real estate brokerage, don’t make the mistake of not hiring Echo Fine Properties!  Have a happy rest of your 4^th of July holiday weekend.

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About the author

Jeff Lichtenstein, originally from Chicago, got his start in the home furnishings textile business where he traveled over 35 weeks a year selling fabrics. After the family business was sold, Jeff moved to Florida and became a real estate agent. Today he is the owner and broker of Echo Fine Properties, a luxury residential brokerage voted best brokerage of the year. Jeff manages a non-traditional model of real estate that mimics a traditional business model. Echo has 100 agents, an average of one million dollars per transaction and over 500 million in annual sales. Between traveling for work and annual family trips to national parks with his wife and 2 now adult children, Jeff has visited 49 states. He is also one of the few Chicago White Sox fans you’ll ever meet. Some publications he has been quoted in.

Author of business & leadership book How Making a Sandwich Can Change Your World – The Amazing Success of the PB&J Strategy – Available to Buy Now!

Feel free to ask him a question directly at [email protected] including a complementary valuation of your home.

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