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Welcome everyone once again to the
Selling Greenville podcast I'm your host
Stan McCune realtor here in Greenville
South Carolina and today we are going to
be talking about the top seven big
mistakes that people make when they're
selling a home whether an investment
property whether house flip whether
their own primary residents what are the
main mistakes that I see that people
make when they are selling a home now
last time we talked about the top seven
biggest mistakes that home buyers
make and I hope you found that helpful
we spent a little bit of time
introducing the show me introducing
myself
I'm not going to do that this time
but if you want more information on me
feel free to look in the show notes of
the show I've got my contact information
there and I would be more than happy to
discuss any real estate needs that you
have if you just reach out to me and
Feel Free as well to just Google my
name Stan mun realtor you'll find
plenty of information on the Internet
by doing that but without further Ado
let's talk about the biggest mistakes
that home sellers make the number one
mistake that I run into this should come
as no surprise the number one mistake I
run into is that people
misprice their home they mispriced their
home now this can be in either direction
and that might surprise you I run into
from time to time it it's it's a lot
less common than the alternative but
very frequently people will
underprice their home and and I think
this is what happens we have a lot of
Realtors out here that their strategy is
actually to underpriced
listings and the reason why they they do
that strategy is that that will result
in more closings for them right it also
means that they
statistically they can say hey my
average house sells in 5 days
well obviously because you underprice
all of them that's a that's a big
strategy that I hear quite a bit in this
market and honestly I think it's
unethical but regardless I have
personally a lot more pride in my work
that I want my clients to get the
maximal value for their house I do a lot
of research to try to determine what a
home is worth and I want to price it
exactly for what it's worth pricing it
under value you might generate more buzz
by doing that you might even generate a
multiple offer type of situation but
those do not work out you turn on HGTV
and they're always like oh yeah multiple
offer situations you know greatest thing
ever listen there is a large percentage
of those multiple offers situations that
do not work out the way people
sellers specifically hope that they will
and they're always extremely stressful
it's much easier if you just have one
or two families that are looking at a
home that are really interested in it
that are willing to pay for it and you
don't have to be dealing with 15 or 20
different offers I've never spoken to a
realtor that is having to deal with 15
or 20 different offers that is really
excited about it it's it's a stressful
and difficult thing to have to deal with
but we run into this that it's either
it's
incompetence the the realtor and the
seller didn't do the research to
determine what their property was worth
and and really that's more on on the
realtor he's the professional she's the
professional should know what the
property is worth either they didn't
do the homework or they intentionally
listed it below market
value I that to me is is not a good
strategy but an even worse strategy
is to list it for more than it's worth
and here's how that typically goes down
usually you've got a seller and they
are adamant this home is
worth X YZ you know let's just say
$300,000 and you can present that there
are sellers out there that you can
present all the data in the world to
show them that their home is not worth
what they're saying it's worth but they
will have some sort of
counterargument and at some point they
will find a realtor that is willing to
just go ahead and list the house for the
price that that they think it's worth
that the sellers think it's worth and
in this market we have so many Realtors
we have more realtors in Greenville than
we have homes for sale so you can find a
realtor that is willing to be a Yes Man
and we're going to get that to that in a
little bit as well but you can find a
realtor that's willing to be a yes man
yes woman and will list a house and and
will put whatever price the seller wants
without any type of argument now listen
at the end of the
day it's the sell's house so if they
aren't willing to list a house for the
price that I think it's
worth
then listen I fully respect if they
don't want to list it with me because
they need to list it for ultimately a
price that they're happy with with but
if you list the house if you list any
house for more than it's
worth you need
to first off you need to figure out what
it's worth not just pull a number out of
the air not pull comps from two miles
away from a different
neighborhood you know completely
different style of construction and say
well my house is like
that and and then try to base your
price off of
that what needs to happen the research
needs to be put in to actually determine
what the house is worth and then to
price it accordingly so I I always come
up with a range I try to keep it within
105,000 Max here's the range that we can
very confidently say this house is
worth and typically I'll try to go on
the upper end of that range it kind of
it it depends there there is more that
that goes into determining how to price
a house than just looking at the comps
and that's something that actually we're
going to talk about here in a second as
well but
usually we're able to look at that
range and to price the home on the upper
end of that range without overpricing it
when you overprice your home you really
hurt your listing I was running some
data today on most of Greenville
County looking at homes that were
three bedroom two
b not on very large Lots B basically
filtering it by the average by your
stereotypical home sale for a single
family house here in Greenville
County and here's what I came up with
the for homes that
sell for at least 90% of what they are
listed for so if they're listed
for 200,000 they sell for at least
180,000 those homes from the time they
go on the market until the time they
close sell in 40 just a little bit more
than 40 days that's that's really quick
right because you know an a very average
amount of time that someone is under
contract is about 30 days so we're
talking about a home that is maybe on
the market for a week goes under
contract and then closes within 30 days
those homes
typically that that is the metric for
how you know that a home has been priced
correctly is it sells pretty quickly the
homes that are selling for below
90% of what they are listed
for the the average time on the market
for those homes is
112 days so what does that mean all
right here's what that
means they start too high the price
starts too high and the listing starts
to
languish it's on the market for a few
weeks it's on the market for a few
months
at some point in there they have to
lower the price maybe once maybe twice
maybe three times depends on how how
overpriced we're talking about and how
aggressive the price cuts are but by
the time they get to the point where
it's been on the market for almost four
months they're finally selling but
they're selling for less than
90% in in some cases we're talking about
in the
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70% range of what it's listed for
properties that are listed for 200,000
that are selling for like
150,000 and here's generally what's the
case with these types of of properties
is if they had just been listed
correctly from the get-go and hadn't
languished on the market for so long
they could have been sold for a higher
price they
might not have have you know gotten for
instance a property that sold for 150
might not have gotten 180 but maybe it
would have gotten 165 had it been priced
at 170 to start with rather than 200
so that's a huge
mistake all right you want to list the
house for what it's worth I think I
think we have sufficiently addressed
that issue the second biggest mistake I
see sell make is listing a house without
professional photos listen this is the
simplest thing in the book to do and
there is a huge percentage of listings
out there that are not done with
professional photos and let me tell you
why that is a huge
mistake first
off the realtor should be paying for the
photos I pay for the photos and that's
not I don't have it in my listing
agreement that if the listing falls
through if the house doesn't sell I make
the seller pay for the photos I don't do
anything like that that is the risk that
I take and that's why I make sure that
the house is priced correctly I've got
skin in the game here this house needs
to be priced for what it's worth I'm
not going to pay several hundred dollars
to have a photographer come out there
and take pictures for a house that I'm
about to list for $50,000 more than what
it's worth
that's that's not what I'm out here
doing
but what ends up happening so often when
someone lists a house without
professional photos it highlights all of
the worst parts of the house and
minimizes some of the best parts of the
house what what I frequently see are
major lighting issues and and major
issues with the home seeming cramp
because the lenses being used are not
a wide enough angle type of lens and so
it makes all the rooms look cramped it's
not flattering to the house at
all and
and it does not encourage people to to
go look at the house that is what you
need you need the house to have traffic
at the end of the day right it it
doesn't matter
you know how many people see the listing
online all that matters really is how
many people actually get into the house
and actually look at it because the
house needs to sell itself and you need
to get people in there and the only way
that you're going to get people in there
is if they look at the photos and
something stands out to them something
has to stand out to them and if they see
a bunch of photos that are dimly lit
make you know the the rooms look small
make the rooms look
cramped
have you know a bunch of clutter in
the
background that is not going to convince
people to set up a showing to go look at
your
house there are so many listings
without professional photography and it
just blows my mind cu honestly it's
not that expensive it it it really isn't
it's just a few hundred bucks if a
realtor is not willing to foot the bill
on something like that then that tells
me that either they're too confident in
their own ability to take good iPhone
photos or they're not confident
enough they're not willing to put their
skin in the game and and either way
that's a
problem
and all of this kind of takes me into my
third point which is choosing a yes
man or a yes woman realtor listen you
can find them out there you can find a
realtor that'll be a Yes Man or yes
woman you know what's the sign of a good
realtor is a realtor that's willing to
to say to you I don't agree with that
and they're willing to to call you out
on on a inaccurate statement on on an
extremely emotional assessment of
something that isn't accurate isn't
based in logic or data that's a good
realtor now I'll say a good realter will
also not just you know always be
contradicting you a good realtor will
also listen to you and make sure he or
she understands you but at the end of
the day I if someone is a professional
they should at some point have
disagreements with some of their
clients if they don't then that probably
means that their clients know just as
much as they do and the realtor is not
really providing any
value and I see this a lot where
people pick Realtors again we talked
about this a little bit in our last
episode but they pick a realtor that
that agrees with them that they feel
comfortable around there is something to
be said for that but you also need
someone that's willing to to disagree
with you every now and then when you say
something or believe something that's
not
accurate number four focusing and and
this is not going to be what you think
it is
okay focusing too much on the
comps now if you're not familiar with
that term
HGTV has has made that term kind of
very common place household language now
when we say comps what we mean are
comparable properties properties that
are similar that sold recently that
are nearby to the subject property that
we're looking at right now and that help
us to determine what the price point is
what this home is worth this home is
worth
$200,000 because look at these three
comps based on these three comps the
price per square foot is this you
multiply that times the square footage
of this house you come up with round
about $200,000 all
right so the number four most common
mistake that I see people make when
they're listing a house is focusing too
much on the comps rather than on what's
currently for sale in other words
they're looking too much at what has
sold rather than what is currently on
the market and here's why that's really
important I I've heard some people say
go so far as to say that actually what's
currently on the market is even more
important than what's sold here's why
let's say that you're looking for a
house with a
pool and and there are some very
specific features about the pool that
you're looking for as
well if there is only one house on the
market that has the pool that you're
looking
for does it really matter what all of
the other houses the past year that had
those types of pools sold for yeah I
mean it matters to a certain
extent but in that
moment those homes that sold with those
pools don't help you at all all that
matters is there is one home in the area
that you're looking for that has a pool
guess what you're probably not the only
buyer looking for a home in that area
with a pool the fact that there's only
one means that you now are competing
probably against two or three other
families trying to buy this one house
because of how unique it is and sellers
can get again so so focused on comps
and and trying trying to figure out okay
well what what happened you know the
past six months the past year the past
18 months that they neglect to look
at okay when they're ready to sell
what's currently on the
market it may be that we need to ER on
the lower end of the range of what a
home is worth because there's a lot of
competition right
now it may be that there's not a lot of
competition so heck let's let's list
this home for absolute topof the
market make sure that we don't overprice
it but let's listen sing for the top of
the market there's not a whole lot else
that's like it and there should be a
pretty sizable market for it and and
I used the pool example because I just
had a listing just a couple of months
ago that was like that it was a unique
property it was in Simpsonville but
it was in a it was in a really it was on
the western side of Simpsonville so in
the best school district that you can
basically have but still have a
Simpsonville address and it had a pool
now here's what was interesting is that
the neighborhood that it was in had a
neighborhood pool so we didn't know how
much value exactly that that the pool
would add we knew most likely it
wouldn't add as much value as what it
costs the owners to have it installed
but that being said when when I looked
at the inventory
levels and I looked out within two miles
of there are there any other homes that
have a pool and there weren't and that
got me extremely excited so I was like
Hey listen this is what I believe the
top of the market is for this for
this neighborhood this is the top price
point that I think that this house would
apprais for and I think that we need to
list it for that price and we did
they were they were somewhat surprised
that I recommended that we did I had an
open house which ended up being the
busiest open house I've ever had by the
way this house wasn't in the best
condition of any house I've ever I've
ever seen there were stains on the
carpet and the carpet was original to
the home which was almost 20 years
old and there were you know they
hadn't updated the kitchen the older
appliances and
whatnot but we had the busiest open
house that I have ever had and
several people came through that and
were just like I can't believe that you
have this house listed for this price
point people thought there there was
a group of people that thought it was
overpriced but guess what the there was
a group of people that saw that the that
the house was unique and we ended up
getting full price for the house full
value for the house full list price for
the house so the moral of the story is
you need to look not just at the comps
you need to look at what is what we call
the inventory what is currently for sale
what is currently on the market
sometimes that can be as important or
more important than the comps at the
very least it informs how you interpret
the comps on a house number five most
common mistake and and honestly this
this could be near the top of the list
all of these are are very are very close
I mean once we got past number one and
number two which were listing the house
for the wrong price listing without
professional photos the rest of these
are all pretty much the same in terms of
if I were to quantify them
this one is
reading too much into just kind of the
the whole situation from any
Communications with a prospective
buyer an offer a repair list Etc making
it too
personal now listen I get it selling a
house is a personal thing for a lot of
people they you know they have memories
there might be you know where they
raised their kids it it might be you
know where they had Church Gatherings
who knows
what you have to do everything that you
can to set those emotions
aside not assume the worst of the buyer
give the buyer the benefit of the doubt
and just look at the data is the buyer
offering you 10,000 less than what you
listed it for okay that's totally fine
you don't need to get upset at the buyer
for that just counter with what you
think is fair now if the buyer comes
in with an insulting offer 30 40,000
below what you listed it for and you
just listed it hasn't even been on the
market for very long
okay you can feel insulted for a moment
but get back to
business and again respond with a
counter to counter back with with what
you believe it's it's worth if that
buyer is serious then something will
come of that if they're not serious
you'll know pretty
quickly and so you don't want to I if
you personalize a transaction too much
you will make irrational decisions that
will hurt you and cause you stress in
the long run the more you can take
emotion out of it and just be focused
on the
transaction and you know the the numbers
and focus on just getting each step
completed step a completed all right
that's done now step B C Etc the more
you can be focused on just knocking all
of those things out and getting to the
closing table you will be better off I
can assure you of
that kind of similar to that is is
number six which is personalizing in
a different way though it's
personalizing too much about the house
and this is in your Decor in how you
have things set up when you buy a house
and when you move into a house the goal
is to personalize it right the first
thing you want to do is to start putting
up things that are meaningful to you
making the house into your own making it
you know the Smith house or the Parker
House whatever whatever it is that
will will make that house feel like it's
yours you want to do that when you're
selling a house you're doing the exact
opposite people don't want to see your
family photos and quite frankly you
don't want them to be seeing your family
photos take those photos down try to
depersonalize as much as possible you
still want the house to be staged and
and to look good but depersonalize as
much as possible people don't need to
know that you love
kargo you know you might have maybe
it's going to be too difficult to
completely change your kyaro room into
just a neutral room but but do
your best try to
depersonalize that will help the house
to show better when people go in it
they'll be focused on the house rather
than focused on your personality and
trying to understand and and and
being distracted by the personal
elements and the personal touches that
you have in there that speak directly
to your
personality last but not least and
and and this one is probably my favorite
out of all of
them taking advice from your neighbors
and friends without supporting data and
I'm I'm holding my head
low I I wish I had a dollar for every
time I've heard someone say well Janet
across the street said that my house was
blah BL blah blah blah or Jim Bob
from you know down the
block he pointed out that someone sold
their house for sale by owner and it
went in two days and
listen I have I appreciate the value of
having friends and neighbors who have
their ear to the
ground
and know helpful little
tidbits but they are not real estate
professionals now some people will
have helpful supporting data the the
data
is it can be useful I would say if it's
someone that's not a real estate
professional if they can provide data
great take that data and talk to someone
that is a little bit more of a real
estate professional doesn't even have to
be a realtor maybe someone that you know
that has flipped houses that that has
some real estate investing background
maybe even a property manager take
that data and and have someone that has
a real estate background interpret the
data the problem is that usually what
happens when you're talking about
friends and neighbors is they're
bringing an
interpretation maybe even in the absence
of data they're just supplying their
opinion and simply stating what they
believe on the basis of like you know
one example oh here's there's a house 2
miles away that
that they did x y and Z2 you know
they added some engineered Hardwoods and
slapped some paint on it and they were
able to sell that thing for 70,000 more
than what they bought it
for no no that that's probably not
what happened and it's it's probably
very simple to go back and look at it
and a real estate professional could
probably go back and look at it and say
no here's what really happened here
now listen I have had some good
experiences with Neighbors in the past I
had an open house one time that a
neighbor came in there a neighbor of a
lady in that
neighborhood came in there specifically
to talk to me to ask me what I thought
her neighbor's house could sell for
and so I gave her some ideas some
thoughts on on what I thought and a few
minutes later she came back with her
neighbor and I ended up listing that
house ended up selling it for full price
and and it was more than what she was
expecting that she was going to get out
of it and everyone went home happy but
that was a neighbor that was doing the
right thing right she was looping in a
real estate
professional not just you know giving
her opinion without any
substantiation
so especially when you have a realtor
that you're working with don't unless
you really don't trust that Realtor in
which case you probably need a new one
don't be arguing with him or her on the
basis of what your friend or your
neighbor said that's not GNA that's not
going to work well
there needs to be data that is
being discussed and if you have data
that you want to discuss that is like
hey
this doesn't seem to match our strategy
or this doesn't seem to match the
conversation that we had can you explain
this that's a much better way to go
about it and that's it those are the top
seven biggest mistakes that sellers make
hopefully you will never make any of
those you'll have a great realtor
sell your house for full value you'll
walk away super happy super EXC excited
and and come away from the closing
table with a gigantic check that you
don't know what to do with and you go on
a on a nice long cruise relaxing and
thinking about how you won't have to
sell another house for a long time
that's what I hope for everyone
particularly for those listening to the
show because you you're spending a
lot of time listening to my lovely voice
and I hope that you come back next time
next time we're going to be talking
about something that's a little bit more
specific to Greenville and I'm excited
about it and I'm excited to to
continue doing this podcast if you got
any questions feel free to reach out to
me my number is 86473
57580 again that's 864 735 7580 feel
free to text or call me I've got that in
the show notes as well as my email
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