MISTAKE #5—NOT KNOWING THE TERMINOLOGY OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
It is easy enough to welcome potential buyers inside your house and give them a tour, but when they start to ask about escrow, oil-, gas-, and water-rights, maybe even about the possibility of leasing the property, do you know what to say to them? Most people don’t, another mistake many people make when selling FSBO. This is also a reason people use real estate agents, as they are trained to easily respond to questions the average person would never have any reason to even think about. Unlike private owners, real estate agents are trained and experienced at considering all of the details buyers may want to know more about. Agents will often have a checklist of any and all matters that could affect the property, and they will have answers prepared for all of them, just in case, as a professional should. Again, it’s their reputation and expertise on the line, so mistakes and misinformation are something they are motivated to avoid at any cost.
MISTAKE #6—SLIP-UPS IN THE HOUSE PRESENTATION
Selling a house is an art. It’s all too easy to make a mistake describing something with sentimental value to someone who doesn’t see it the same way. It’s easy to use the wrong kind of adjectives, or to exaggerate and say the wrong things at the wrong time. What seems like wholehearted and innocent praise to you might actually be annoying to a stranger. It is often quite hard for an owner to present his or her property neutrally, simply because of the emotional attachments linked to it. That can be a hindrance to the sales process and is another common mistake made by people who sell FSBO.
On the other hand, real estate agents have the advantage of
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