Just as you need to be qualified, so do prospective buyers for your home. It’s a huge waste of your time showing your home to people who can’t even buy it. For example, let’s say that you, the seller, spent two weeks preparing your home specifically for someone — a friend of a friend — who displayed great interest in your particular property. You spent $1,000 in order to remove an old shed in your backyard, and you met several times with the prospect to discuss the price, as well as the terms and conditions. Then, once you were knee- deep in the home-selling process with this buyer, you found out that they didn’t even qualify for a loan. You can avoid such a catastrophe by working with a qualified real estate agent. A professional agent will spend a significant amount of time weeding out prospects and vetting interested buyers, ensuring you show your home only to qualified home shoppers.
Mistake #7. NOT PREPARING YOUR HOME
You are definitely going to lose money on the sale of your home if you aren’t prepared to improve it enough for showings. This includes decluttering, cleaning, repairing/upgrading, and staging. • Declutter: Experts say clutter is the culprit that eats at the equity and kills deals. Decluttering is necessary for any home-selling situation, but it’s even more important when you’re downsizing because you’re switching from living in a larger home to a smaller one. In previous chapters, we’ve talked about decluttering while downsizing because you can’t take all your belongings with you. But decluttering is also important to the actual sale of your home. Clutter distracts buyers and might put them off from making an offer. Clearing your clutter is time-consuming, but it’s not 58
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