Maybe You SHOULD Sell Yourself Short!

There's no doubt that selling a house in today's market is more challenging than it was a few years ago. Even in the Lexington KY real estate market, which hasn't been hit as hard as most of the U.S., there's more inventory available than in years and houses are sitting on the market longer.

Despite the difficulty you face in trying to sell a home, whether you've decided to go with a real estate professional or go for sale by owner, there's one thing that never pays off -- "fudging" the facts when you market your house. It's one thing to focus primarily on the positive aspects of your house when you write your flyer or compose your mls entry -- it's another to mislead people into believing your home has features it doesn't.

It always amazes me when the marketing description of a home makes claims that are bogus; does the writer not realize that when the buyer shows up to take a look, they are bound to notice that the room you're claiming is an office is actually a hall closet with the doors removed and some shelves added? What about the flyer that describes the house as being in a "tranquil, serene setting" when in fact it backs up to a high school? It's probably not very "tranquil" or "serene" when there's band practice going on or a football game is in progress, and buyers will notice!

Square footage is another area where misrepresentation can occur. And I'm not sure that sellers are purposely misstating their home's square footage as often as they are merely guessing at it. And while misleading people about how "quiet" and "serene" your neighborhood is may leave you with a disappointed prospective buyer, misstating your square footage can get you sued!

A far better approach is to undersell the house just slightly, leaving a little room for pleasant surprises when the buyer comes to take a look. I am not implying, by any means, that you go so far as to write a poor description for the mls or that you should omit photos from your listing. I'm simply saying that a buyer is far more likely to put in an offer on a house when they're surprised with one or two "bonus" items they hadn't anticipated than they are if they're surprised when the house doesn't meet the expectations the advertising set forth.

The bottom line is this -- it never pays to misrepresent your property in ads or in the mls. Tell everyone what's great about your property (there must be something great about it -- you bought it for some reason, didn't you?) but leave the exaggerations and false claims to the carnival barkers who promise to show you "the world's only 3-headed man" or some such nonsense. You're more likely to get your house sold when prospective buyers visit your home with realistic ideas of what to expect when they come to see your house.