3 Common Charlotte Home Seller Mistakes | Thoughts from the Buyers’ Perspective
Showing homes this beautiful Charlotte weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to pick the brains of savvy buyers with regards to home SELLING! Yes, because both sets of buyers are also sellers, we discussed seller strategies that just didn’t seem to be working for some of the homes that we viewed.
Here are our thoughts on three of the biggest seller mistakes that we saw:
1. Pricing: Why do sellers continue to price homes as though they were on sale at WalMart? Here’s an example of why you don’t want to use ‘999’ – These particular buyers are searching in the $700 – $800,000 price range. They’re savvy buyers; they do their own searches and work very little from a pre-set search that I’ve created for them. I jokingly call them ‘rogue’ buyers but, they still get the job done and some just prefer their own means of searching. As we were driving past one of the homes that I had sent them, I pointed out that this particular home could be a good fit and that it was priced at $699,000. At this point, it was too late to schedule a visit and my buyers had already agreed upon another home but, their comment was, “Had they just listed it at $700,000, it would have been at the bottom of our range in which we were searching and we’d have taken a look at it while we were in town!” BINGO!
Sellers, THOSE are the buyers that you want–those who are searching and find YOUR home at the BOTTOM of their range! If you’re not SEEN at the bottom of their range, they miss your home! The internet sites, where the VAST majority of buyers find their new home, do not allow ‘odd number searching’ – the searches are clean, even numbers. $599,000 $600,000 $699,999 $700,000 $799,990 $800,000
Why would you risk losing your most promising buyer pool?
2. Condition: Before you priced your home, did you compare it to others in your community or area? Just because a home that is the same square foot size, that is also in tip-top condition is priced for $750,000, yours may not compare! Is your kitchen upgraded? Are your bathrooms updated? Have you added hardscaping to your backyard? Have you finished the basement in your home? These things ADD value and without them, your home just doesn’t compare. If you haven’t upgraded, you MUST price your home to reflect the lack of upgrades.
3. Staging: Buyers are not searching for homes based solely upon the neighborhood or the design of the home but, they’re also focused on size. How much space do the main rooms have that they can work with? Our buyers felt that some of the homes that boasted the square footage and the large room sizes that they needed online, proved to be a disappointment when they viewed them in person. The homes that were noted as ‘too small for our needs’ were FILLED with large pieces of furniture–some wall-to-wall furniture. The oversized furniture completely prohibited the visualization of you home, leaving these buyers feeling that your home did not meet their needs.
If you’re planning a move, you’re going to have to pack your belongings away anyway--so, why not go ahead and show off the space that you have by eliminating larger pieces of furniture that make your rooms look smaller than they truly are.
I can tell that the master suite is 20‘ X 23’ but, I am not the one who is buying your home. With the enormous furniture, doggie crates and baby equipment in the room, my buyers felt that the master was just too small for them! No amount of explaining and attempts to visually place THEIR furniture convinced them. These buyers immediately fell in love with a well-staged, sparsely furnished home with a SMALLER master suite based upon the square footage!
Pricing, condition and staging your Charlotte home are top contenders for buyer critique during the home shopping process. To be the one that the buyers fall in love with, you must pay special attention to all three!
If you’re thinking of selling your Charlotte home, give me a call at (704) 491-3310 or email me at Broker@TheCharlotteScoop.com! I’m happy to walk you through the process and discuss getting your home SOLD!
(THE best Charlotte home search available - no kidding!)
Debe Maxwell, CRS/Realtor®/Broker
Broker@TheCharlotteScoop.com
Phone (704) 491-3310
As usual you have prepared a thorough checklist for your sellers to use when putting their home on the market. With this they are going to get a quick sale. No wonder you have so many happy sellers.
Well, thank you, Jane! I was just pulling comparables tonight for a new seller and was amazed at the listings at 999... It's not like that discount store price is helping them sell either--the ones that I was researching have been on the market for quite some time.
Hi Debe...some time ago I learned to not do the 499, 599, 699 pricing...because I thought Realtors just were not thinking and missing homes that should be on the even number..never thought about Buyers doing their own searches and rounding off their price ranges
I Guess they should have let you sent them their listing to review...another reason to let your Realtor do their job.
Cheers
All good points. I suppose they're still listing at "999" because of the psychological effect. But obviously, in this case it doesn't work as planned.
Debe - Excellent article as always. While I'm not in the luxury market, the same is true for any price range even the lower prices below $200k. I've used to make this mistake until I've read some articles here on AR that makes sense. Thank you for sharing :)
Debe,
Great advice! We find sellers really need to understand how buyers are thinking to do an effective job being able to sell their home. Not taking into account their competition or way over pricing is an exercise in futility.
All the best, Michelle
Great article and great advice as usual. My favorite is point #3. The sellers are going o be moving anyway so it makes perfect sense.
Fantastic article thank you for sharing. I specifically like your first post because I have missed so many homes by doing just that...also pricing a home at 801,000 may be that perfect home and that $1000 dollar stretch is not significant but the list cuts tehm off
Great post. I find that #2, condition is a big issue for me. Sellers don't get it when you tell them their home isn't updated. "But we redid the kitchen!" Yes, but that was 25 years ago!
Simply stated friends don't let friends price at $9.99 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I always educate my buyer clients about the "0.99" gimmick. It's been around such a long time, it will apply to a bunch of socks at Walmart, people will use the same technique on properties. Psychologically, the lower number is just more attractive, even if it is only $1000 less. As a selling agent, I will do it too. So I tell my buyer if they will do their own searches, if their range is 700-800k, give or take -10k or so.
I completely agree with all your other points. :)
Excellent points, Debe. The 999 deal makes me crazy. I looked up a property last Spring that listed at $129999.99. Really? That's just annoying. I don't get why an agent would present that price to a seller, or why an agent would allow a seller to demand that price for list. Oy! Great post!
Good advice - thank you. I still laugh at all the agents that use 9.99999. . . when the search engines use even numbers. Seem silly to miss the boat for $100.
Great points, Debe. I especially like the furniture removal. Even though I tell buyers to mentally subtract what is in a room, it is not always possible for them to visualize. Advising the seller to remove furniture from each room goes a long way toward showing the space and NOT the furnishings.
What grat tips. Nothing like a crowded home with dated furniture to make the value appear lower than it might be.
Great post! We are in a price-driven market here in south Florida. Price first and, of course, condition of the home is next.
Good post Debe!! I've always wondered about the pricing and have seen some really "unique" priced homes of late. $367,390. HUH?!? Condition is another factor. Not all homes are equal and condition doesn't seem to be the great equalizer when it comes to pricing for some sellers.
Debe -- this post is brilliant. It is good that your buyers were also sellers because they could really look at both side. I had been a buyer only agent for many years and when I started listing... I knew exactly what the seller needed to do to sell the home.. and you have it a home run.
Preach it sista! Debe, I send my clients up to $210,000 homes, not $209,999, JUST in case the listing agent has done the 999 thing. Condition, staging, packing, OY. You can tell the sellers but you can't get it thru to them UNTIL you show the seller a competing STAGED property. Then they're ready to box things up. Great post.
Debe
Those are three bonofide mistake indeed of homes and sellers.
Well, I obviously posted and dashed this one but, thank you all for your comments! The 999 issue drives me nuts--SO many buyers prefer to use website IDX's to search for homes rather than my gateway that I create for them. They like it because there's more than just homes on your blog and your website. We all know that on almost ALL sites, you can only do an internet search in $25K increments, at best. So, there's no $499K - $550K--it's $500K - $550K. That $1 (if at 999) or $1,000 is costing these sellers their best traffic if priced at $499K.
Why? Because if you're searching $500K - $550K, the $499 (which should be $500) is going to be at the bottom of your range--you're not going to try to bring the sellers to their knees in negotiations trying to get TO your bottom number. Sellers negotiate better sales when their home is listed at the Offeree's bottom range, rather at the top.
As for staging--Melissa is right, moving that clunky furniture out IS key to showing off your larger rooms--and making your smaller rooms feel larger.
Condition--take your sellers to view the competition--it works (most of the time)!!
Hey Debe, If only the sellers would listen to you! You bring up some very good points that every seller needs to consider.
The same pricing strategy comes into effect when doing price reductions. If a home is priced at 500K, their next reduction should be to 475K, rather than just a 5K or 10K drop. If it really is worth more than that, the market will drive the price upward.
Great Post Debe! I love #3. I showed a listing last week and my client and I had to navigate through HUNDREDS of boxes located in every room of the house! It was a nightmare! How in the world do they expect someone to even consider making an offer when they can't even see the floors or walls?? Crazy! I emailed the listing agent and suggested she split the cost of a storage unit for her client!
Thanks for a great post!
Debe- love this post and how you focused on the point of view of the Buyer... you're telling them what your buyers are saying to you. Price is #1 but condition has to be there after that. And, thank you for including staging.
Good point about 999 and one that I hadnt even thought about! I guess when I am making a search portal out I just naturally make it for a little bit more and a little big less! But then again the buyer may or may not do that themself! As for huge furniture I could not agree more! There is just something about huge furniture that just distracts people! It either takes their attention away from the size of the room or the room in general!
Debe, this is something every seller needs to read before calling to talk about listing their house for sale.
Being the higher priced home in a lower bracket gets more eyeballs and in the case of real video, more ear drums focused on the property needing to be sold, exposed, marketed full throttle. Doggie crates in the master bedroom... oh oh. The odor of Lassie, dog hair and the crates make you wonder what about the days of dog houses, when animals and kids too played outside. Wanted and needed fresh air?
Debe: Wow, I hadn't even thought about the pricing question with respect to IDX searches. The 999 drives me nusts, but pour firm is big on xxx,900. BTW, the really oddball numbers come from sales training like Floyd Wickman. I tried it a couple of times, but didn't see anything good happen. The days of gimmicks are over. There is so much information available for the inquisitive buyer - before they ever get to us.
Re teh updates or lackthereof - funny how some sellers don't want to see their competition. When that happens, you can be pretty sure they will be keeping their heads in the sand.
Great reblog and here is my intro...
This sure is a helpful post to suggest to those in the home sales or purchase process to put on the other side's ball cap or moccasins. Space and pricing sure are important tips. Deferred Maintenence plays a big role in whether a home will be selected. Pay special attention to these items!
Did you do your header in Picnik? I like it every time I see it with the photos tilted here and there!
Debe not paying attention to these items will not lead to success. I love the photo you used to make your point about upgrading, as well as the point about the buyers choosing a smaller home because of less furniture which made it easy to to visualize their furniture in the space.
Excellent points Debe. I have been saying much the same for a while and will send this post to a client that needs to read it.
Great post - would be nice to send anonymously to some of our sellers...
Around here, it boils down to price, price and price.
Anything else and it still boils down to the money.
Good post, thanks for sharing it.
Hello Debe ... Great post with some great tips ... Congrats on the feature and "Happy Holidays"
VB ;o)
Elyse, Dan and Cheryl, thanks so much for the re-blog! And, thanks to everyone for your comments. I believe that as Jean said, if sellers would read this, it would definitely open some eyes--especially from a buyer's perspective.
I always try to tell people about pricing their home with an even number so it ends up in more search results. But it seems like many people still like that "99" thing.
Debe -- for years, every place that lists something as xxx.89 or so I have always just read it as xx(x+1).00, so trying to look "less expensive" by dropping a couple of dollars, when talking hundreds of thousands is ridiculous. Round out those numbers -- get the sellers to recognize it will help move things faster. Great post.
Too late to suggest. This is so true and well written. I may need to forward it to clients one day so I'll hang on to it.
Great ideas. The round numbers definitely work better for searching online. I'm not sure if it helps sales or not.
Hi Debe, Great primer for sellers and agents. That whole " 999 " thing seems so simple.
Hi Debe,
You are right on about the numbers. I am always afraid of missing a buyer's search with the 999 bit. Another turnoff for buyers is pet odor. This has to be addressed as well.
Love your article. Well written.
Thanks
Trudy