Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Home
Instead of nixing the deal, putting the home back on the market and risking selling it for a lower price, "I would advise the sellers to be more flexible when some things do go wrong but the buyer is working on it in good faith," Shekhar says.
Sellers tend to favor buyers who pay cash or have big down payments — even if they're not the highest offers — on the assumption that the transaction is more likely to be consummated. But Chen says it pays to ask about the finances of buyers with small down payments. Some people make smaller down payments by choice, and can pay for appraisal gaps and repairs by liquidating investments.
Be Confident, Yet HumbleA lot of seller errors are born of overconfidence. Yes, we're in a hot real estate market, and sellers have the upper hand in negotiations. But things will go more smoothly if you lightly stage and depersonalize your place, inform buyers of the home's condition, price it correctly, know which offer to accept and roll with it if the buyer hits a bump on the road to getting the loan.