So if you’re thinking about selling your house, there’s a lot of things to think about and one thing you definitely don’t want to do is scare off potential buyers. Some of these things that we’re going to go through today are things that you can do prior to putting your house on the market. Some things you don’t want to do, just because it’s going to make people even not even come check out your property. So today’s video is about six things that scare off home buyers. So as a home seller there’s a ton to think about. Here’s six quick little tips that’ll help you get prepped and help you get top dollar for your house. As always, thanks for tuning in. We are real estate agents out here in North County, San Diego. So if you guys are thinking about selling, definitely hit us up. Number is popping up right now. Call, text, email. We got your back when moving in and around North County, San Diego. I’m Chris Erickson.
Loren Sanders:
I’m Loren Sanders with the Beach Life Group. Hey, I got a quick question.
Chris Erickson:
Yes sir.
Loren Sanders:
Shouldn’t this have been a pre-Halloween edition with the scare?
Chris Erickson:
Yeah, it is in that Halloween realm.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah.
Chris Erickson:
If anytime you’re watching this, we’re right the beginning of the end of November, so don’t get scared.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah.
Chris Erickson:
Do these things and make sure you do get top dollar for your house.
Loren Sanders:
Right.
Chris Erickson:
First, hopping into number one is something we preach no matter what market we’re in. Right now, at the beginning of this year we were in a little bit hotter market so it wasn’t as important and it still always is super important. And now coming into 2023 and anytime actually, is pricing your home too high. Loren, why don’t we want to price it too high?
Loren Sanders:
Well, in the current marketplace you want to have a compelling price, is what I would call it, on your property.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
One thing that’s interesting to think about in some of it’s psychology, at the beginning of the year in our current market, the market was going crazy and this is funny, buyers will write an offer and they’ll point to comps.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
Well, homes who sell the comps were a nice guide, like Zillow or something, yeah, that’s ballpark. But they were going for over the comps and now sellers were like, “Hey, the price, is the price.” Now we’re coming back where the market’s adjusting a little bit back to normal and the sellers want to point to the comps and the buyers are saying, “Hey, that last comp, the prices are going in a different direction potentially.” So it’s funny, the psychology. So the best thing, that was a long answer too. If you have a compelling price, you’re going to get the most attention, the most interested buyers that are currently in the marketplace, which would create some competition hopefully. And then you get a good price for your home and it’s not on the market too long.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah. And especially today with buyers knowing pretty much a lot about the market, what’s going on, they’re looking at all the houses they’re seeing, what’s selling, they’re seeing conditions, locations, what’s going for what, how long homes are sitting on the market. And so if you are the aspirational pricing, pricing too high buyers, like I said, have a lot of knowledge these days with everything online. So they are going to know if a home is overpriced and potentially not even just come see it first off. They’re just going to scratch it off their list, because they’re like, “Ah no, that’s not going to be me.” Because they see it as no value there.
Loren Sanders:
Or that the seller’s unreasonable.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah, exactly.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah. So then why deal with that? Let’s move to the next one where the sellers are reasonable.
Chris Erickson:
And speaking of online, the second one has a lot to do with how most buyers are looking at homes these days and it is low quality pictures. Avoid low quality pictures, low quality videos, because most people are seeing these online first. That’s the first impression, as they’re scrolling through, they’re getting these updates in their inboxes every single day if they’re any somewhat active in the market. And the first impression is that picture that pops up. And there are still people today who are agent wise who are using cell phones. A cell phone does take a good picture, but there’s a world of difference between a cell phone picture that somebody’s taken to put on the market and a professional photographer going out there doing all the video, doing all the marketing, making sure everything’s looking good, pristine, just to get the most eyes and the most interest on your property.
Loren Sanders:
See what I’m saying? Like you just said, if the initial impression isn’t good, people just don’t even come look.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
I mean, we know that in the views online, we know that if you have video you’re going to get more views of your property. If you have an immersive type floor plan, you’re going to probably get more. And more time on the site, which in our data we can see how much time people are spending on different listings, that’s important because the longer they’re there, obviously the more interest level.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
So got to have some interesting things to look at. The professional photographers know the right angles to take too and just the right way to make the house set itself in its best light.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah. Number three on the list is not deep cleaning or depersonalizing, it is that preparation piece of putting your home on the market. It is so important. You want for depersonalizing, that’s just the standard thing you hear a lot of real estate agents say, it’s basically getting all the pictures and anything that’s ties back to you as the seller out of the house. You want the potential buyers coming in and seeing themselves living in there. Plus deep cleaning, making sure everything is spotless, no dust everywhere, making sure all the lights are working, just little things, combing through it and making sure that buyers can see themselves living there and they don’t have to do much to move in. So it’s a huge little step in get ready for the market as well.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah, they got to picture themselves living there or they go to the next one.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah and that’s the first step as we’re coaching potential sellers and stuff. Before you’re even getting those professional photos, you’re going to be doing this deep cleaning and depersonalizing, but you’re going to want to keep it that way for showings throughout the entire process as well. And it is a bit of a challenge, especially if you have family or kids, you have life going on. But it is super important to get the most money and sell your house the quickest to help you get where you need to go. Number four on the list is old or outdated windows. And this could be once again in the preparation stage, people that are buyers that are moving in and obviously the more dialed in the house is, the better it is.
Now you don’t necessarily need to go replace all your windows, but one thing we do preach is clean those windows. Make sure they are spotless. You could tell sometimes walking in the house is real nice and sometimes the windows are not cleaned and you got that… I mean, some are fogged too, meaning they have failed. So get all that stuff taken care of prior to even going on the market. Again, just so it shows as good as it can. And if you have those super old windows, maybe look into potentially replacing them all before you go on the market. It is a bigger cost, it is a bigger time commitment, but it might be something worth looking into.
Loren Sanders:
The caveat or the add on to this one too, I would say that’s a little easier to get to and do, is fixtures within the house, light fixtures, different things. If those are super dated and worn, that’s something you could add on to this. Just that says A, Windows, B, do this and you’ll have it dialed in to look newer and less problems. The real thing is it gives the buyer less problems in their mind if they say, “Ah, we got to do this and that.”
Chris Erickson:
And at least like I said, wash the windows and check out the screens too, that’s a big deal. If you have these old screens, that’s a pretty cheap little fix. Get somebody out there, mobile screen person, fix all those before you actually go on the market, get rid of any tears, any of that. Maybe it’s been sitting in the sun for 15, 20 years, it’s looking gray, it’s looking old.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah.
Chris Erickson:
So that’s pretty easy and relatively inexpensive. Number five is super important, is taking care of any water stains or anything, any water issues you have had in the past. Obviously, you’re going to have to disclose anything that did happen when you do sell your house, so don’t try to hide it. But make sure it’s fixed, make sure it’s fixed properly. Huge thing that a lot of buyers look at that is a mental hurdle if they do see any of that stuff, is there any mold, is there any other issues? Where is that coming from? So you’re going to want to make sure all that’s taken care of prior and make sure, like I said, if you did have some water damage in the past, if you did have a leak somewhere, you’re going to disclose that to potential buyers when they do get into the process. Sso like I said, don’t hide it but definitely take care of it the proper way.
Loren Sanders:
I would say take care of it and make sure it’s painted fresh, so it’s not hiding it when you disclose it.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
Our disclosure forms ask questions like that.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
So it’ll be covered. But yeah, you don’t want unknowns. The biggest challenge, and especially when people have more options when they’re looking at a home, is the unknowns that they see when they come in.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
And that would be a big unknown if you had water stains on the ceiling or they think the roof is a problem or there’s some kind of leaks. And especially if the house is a little bit older.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
The potential problems in their mind can build up and they just move on to the next one.
Chris Erickson:
And before we get into the sixth thing that scares buyers off, make sure if you guys are digging what we’re putting down, if you like this content, if you’re living North County, San Diego and you’re selling a home and you want to know what’s going on, a lot of these videos too, we’re doing [inaudible 00:09:29] updates.
Loren Sanders:
Subscribe.
Chris Erickson:
Be sure to subscribe. Yeah, because we’re dropping new videos every single week right here. The number six item is going to be offensive odors and it’s a huge one. Living at your house, you probably don’t notice it too much. You’re used to it. You,’ve been there forever. I mean even sitting at my own house, I could leave for on vacation, coming back you’re like, “Huh, what is that?” It’s just something that new buyers coming in the house will definitely notice, especially if you have pets, especially if you smoke in your house. Especially if there is just anything that you’ve gotten used to over the years, make sure to take care of that before putting your house on the market.
Loren Sanders:
I mean, it’s one of those unseen things, but definitely felt, right?
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
So when people walk in, I can’t tell you how many people, when you’re showing houses, they’ll say, “Hey, do you smell something different?” Sometimes it’s musty smell. We have stuff by the coast that we sell and sometimes you go into a place and there’s a little bit of a musty smell or something. But then sometimes it is even as generic as the way people cook different things and there’s just odors that might not be pleasant to everybody. It’s an easy thing to fix. But my last piece of advice on that is get somebody’s help, because we might not notice it. We don’t notice it, like you said when you leave.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
So have somebody come in, “Hey, do you notice anything?” Any odors that you pick up on somebody that’s not there, they’ll tell you right away if they’re a good friend.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah.
Loren Sanders:
Right?
Chris Erickson:
Yeah. And there’s also companies that can come in and deodorize the property for you to make sure you get all that smell out. And as you’re prepping and all that stuff, new paint, new flooring, if you’re doing all that stuff, that’s somewhat of a good smell, I would say, that people can tell that it’s been taken care of. It’s recently been updated or painted.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah. Like the new car smell, get in the new car, you’re like, “Hey, new carpet. Hey, it’s fresh, clean.” Yeah, totally.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah. So be sure to take all those into account before putting your house on the market. You don’t want to scare off buyers before they’re actually writing offers. You want to make sure to make your house as appealing as possible to the most amount of people, so you get the most amount of offers, driving up the price anyways, helping you get to where you need to be.
Loren Sanders:
Yeah. Hey, I’ve got a question for you, Chris.
Chris Erickson:
Yeah, what’s that?
Loren Sanders:
Haven’t we done some extensive conversations about how to sell a house? Do we have anything like that, that we could share with people?
Chris Erickson:
That’s a good question. We do. It is called How to Sell a House Podcast. We just dropped it, it’s 30 episodes right now. Jump in there. It is everything and anything you need to know about how to sell your house. We go into a lot of these details in depth. We have whole episodes on how to price your home, how to prep your home, how to promote your home, and everything that goes on behind the scenes, so that when you are ready to sell your house, you’re already have all that knowledge and expectations are set and you are ready to roll, armed with all that knowledge you need to know to sell your house. So go check it out, howtosellahousepodcast.com. And if you guys are thinking about selling in North County, you just have questions, even if it’s 3, 6, 9, 12 months out, hit us up. The number popping up right now, we are real estate agent. It’s right here. It’s never too early to start that conversation. Feel free to call, text, or email.