Make sure you avoid these six mistakes while preparing your house.

I’m here today to talk about a few mistakes to avoid when preparing your home for the market. Make sure you don’t do any of these:

1. Overpricing your home. This can be a big problem, even when the market is going up. You won’t have showings, and you won’t have offers. Buyers expect to see your home priced at recent market value or lower.

2. Being too emotional. To the buyer, it’s a house. To you, it’s a home. You may have raised your kids there, but it’s time to move on, so the most important thing now is how much you net. Trust your Realtor because we try to take the emotions out of the process for you.

3. Turning down showings. If buyers can’t see your home, they won’t make an offer, so don’t make it too difficult. We need to put up a lockbox and set appointments, and you should take your pets somewhere else during showings.

"To you, it’s a home. To the buyer, it’s a house."

4. Overimproving your house. There’s a fine line around home improvements. I made a video covering what you should do, but be careful not to do any additional improvements that won’t get you a return. Talk to me before you decide to do anything extra.

5. Decorating based only on the latest trends. Make sure you stick to the neutrals, and don’t follow the latest trends too much. We have a great stager who will help you through that.

6. Playing hide-and-seek during showings. You need to be gone while the buyer is in the house. They need to be comfortable and imagine themselves in that home to buy it. 

If you have questions about what you should or shouldn’t do to get your home ready to go on the market, give me a call. I’m also here to answer any other real estate questions you might have. I look forward to hearing from you.