The Worst Advice San Diego Home Sellers Hear From Friends and Family

Anyone that is looking to sell a San Diego house needs to be careful.  Soon, friends and family are going to come through with “amazing” pieces of advice that may actually do more damage than good.  All San Diego home sellers have a different goal in mind when selling their house. Plus, not everyone is in the same financial place when they are ready to sell.

Even though they may mean well, there is some advice that San Diego home sellers are better off leaving unfollowed.

Just The Right Time

Everyone has heard this piece of advice: wait until spring to list a house.  While this is the time where many buyers are looking to make a purchase it is also the time where everyone is listing their properties.  

Having a lot of properties to choose from is good for a buyer and can be bad for San Diego home sellers.  Buyers have the option to move on to the next property if they think the price of a house is too much or they may just want to make the seller sweat it out.  There is a lot of competition in the spring so the house needs to be in tip-top shape to look better than the neighbors.

Asking Too Much

The listing price of a home is important.  Many people think that they can overprice their home and then get more in the end even if they negotiate with the buyer.  

However, few buyers want to try to haggle a price too much.  Putting the price of the home at too high of a price point will scare buyers away.  It can be better to price competitively to bring in more buyers.

Negotiations

All San Diego home sellers and buyers should expect a little negotiation.  However, leaving too much room for negotiations is not a good idea.

Most buyers are looking for a moderately priced home that is ready to move in.  They are not prepared to spend months deliberating over the sale.

With inventory on the rise, there are many more options for buyers and they will find another property.

Few Renovations

In previous years, many buyers were looking for a house to buy for cheap and renovate.  There is still the occasional house flipper that does not care what the inside of a house looks like.  But most buyers are looking for a fully renovated home and are willing to pay a bit more to get it.

Millennial buyers are changing the market and want a move-in ready home versus a fixer-upper.  

Photography

The old way to search for houses is outdated and few people rely on it.  It is no longer passable to take mediocre pictures and slap them onto a flyer.  Now people expect a house to be listed online with professional photos and even videos showing what the property looks like.  

Home sellers should hire a professional or risk people passing by the listing without calling for a showing.

Sell At An Open House

Even open houses are changing.  Before, real estate agents used open houses to seal the deal with a buyer.  Buyers would walk through, make a serious offer and the seller would make a counteroffer if necessary.  Now, San Diego open houses are much more like window shopping.

Buyers who do not want to dedicate themselves to an agent often pop into open houses.  Even other sellers in the neighborhood may come by to see what their competition is like.  Few serious buyers make an offer based solely on the open house.

The way people sell San Diego houses is evolving as the market changes.  The San Diego real estate market is a constantly changing machine and no one will ever be able to say what works the best to sell a house.  Each homeowner and each house is going to approach a sale differently. It is up to the home sellers to adapt their strategy to fit the market at the time.