According to a recent article on Moneysense.ca, most homeowners make up to three mistakes when they set about to sell their homes.

Richard Dolan, president of the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) recently sold his own home and was reminded just how stressful the process can be. At the top of his list of ten mistakes homeowners make was not using the services of a real estate professional.

Closely related is setting a wrong listing price. “Understand your market. Research your neighborhood for selling prices and sold-for prices,” Dolan says, “Also, do some comparables; what are other homes given the features and benefits of your home selling for?”  Unless you are a real estate professional, you don't have access to this kind of information.

Mispricing can also occur when you let emotions rule your decision of what price to ask. Many prospective home sellers have a magic number in mind of the ideal selling price of their home. For example, if you bought a $300,000 home and the market has dropped 10% since the original purpose, the fact you “need” to clear $300,000 after all expenses is irrelevant.

It is also a mistake to let your ego get in the way. The fact that you raised your family there and spent years making your house perfect doesn't matter; it's not your house anymore. You have to make your home appealing to your buyers instead so they can envision themselves in it. This can be done through staging. De-cluttering is very important, but you don't want to remove so much that  people can't see what living there would be like.  

We have all heard the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" and this couldn't be more true in real estate. With 90% of buyers starting their search online, using poor photographs to market your home is also a big mistake.

To read the full article, click here