5 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Portsmouth NH Homes and Condos

Portsmouth New Hampshire Homeowners - Do You Need to Sell Your Home or Condo?

Homeowners in the Portsmouth NH Seacoast areas are lucky to be in an area where the interest level in living in such a gorgeous area hasn't caused our market to drop as much as some real estate markets in other areas around the country.

Our sales are off a little compared to the fast-paced markets of just a few years ago, and because of that, if you have a home or condo that you need to sell fairly quickly in today's market, you need to be aggressive in several ways to bring about a sale.

Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when selling Portsmouth NH homes and condos in today's real estate market:

1) Showing Your Home Before It's Ready - we have a saying in real estate, "You never get another chance to make a really good first impression". And it's so true! Make sure the condition of your home indicates to buyers you really are ready to sell - get rid of clutter, rearrange furniture to make your rooms look roomy, clean thoroughly from top to bottom, shape up the yard, Buyers want, and need, to be able to see the house or condo as it might look with their belongings in it, not yours clouding their vision.

Read also:

• Spring Home Selling Tips for Homes in Portsmouth NH - Part 1
• 10 Tips to Get Portsmouth NH Homes Ready to Sell - Part 2
• 8 Tips for Great Curb Appeal on a Budget

2) Pricing Your Home or Condo Incorrectly and/or Not Correcting the Price Quickly - we know at times it's difficult to determine the correct price for your home or condo, especially if it's very unique in the market. However, if you don't price it correctly, don't then make small prices corrections later on. Make those corrections quickly and in amounts that actually impact potential buyers. Look at homes or condos similar to yours and get your price under theirs - you don't want to sell the competition by over-pricing your home, thereby making the other choices available for buyers look better because their prices are lower than yours. The homes and condos that stimulate the most interest are those that are newest on the market and that are priced aggressively to start with.

Read also:

• Pricing Your Portsmouth NH Homes and Condos Correctly for Todays Market
• Pricing Your Home To Sell

3) Hiring the Wrong REALTOR- hire a REALTOR who's enthusiastic about your property and with whom you've developed a rapport with. Your REALTOR should be someone you trust, who knows the market and will work hard to get your Portsmouth home or condo sold. Your professional REALTOR can make a huge difference in whether other area REALTORS will even want to show your home, never mind getting it sold. Google the REALTORS you're interviewing - that will show you how, and if, they embrace today's technology for marketing and getting the job done.

Read also:

• Tips For Hiring Your New Hampshire-Maine REALTOR
• Selling A Home in the Portsmouth NH and Maine Areas
• How Is YOUR Property Being Represented?

4) Playing the Waiting Game - if you need to sell your home or condo, do it. I've heard plenty of homeowners say they were just going to wait and see what the Portsmouth NH real estate market will do. Well, there's no better time to sell than now, if you need to sell. Get it ready for showing, price it correctly to sell, and you'll be able to move on to whatever motivated you to sell in the first place.

5) Not Working With The First Offer You Receive - time after time, I see sellers receive an offer on their home or condo and they think if that offer comes in shortly after going on the market, that they've priced it too low. That is just not the case at all! The best buyers to try to capture are those that have been in the market, have seen other homes that didn't meet their needs and are now just waiting for a home or condo to come on the market for sale that does meet their needs. Or buyers who've made offers on other homes or condos and they didn't get that home or condo that they wanted because someone else outbid them. These are the buyers that will likely be seeing your home right after it hits the market, and these buyers are those that are most motivated because they're already seen everything else that's already on the market.

If you get an offer from one of these first few buyers to see your home, give serious consideration to it as they are motivated buyers and they're educated buyers because they've already been in the market. Don't buy into the school of thought that because you got an offer fairly quickly that there must be others around the corner. There just may not be any others for some time to come - work that offer and get your home sold so you can move on. Your first offers are usually your best - statistics show that time and time again.

Read also:

• New Hampshire and Maine Seacoast Area Towns Real Estate Market Reports
  

If you're thinking about selling Portsmouth NH real estate, homes, or condos - price it aggressively, get it in great showing condition, hire the right REALTOR, and you'll soon be seeing S-O-L-D!!

And if you're giving thought to buying or selling real estate in any of these areas, send me an email or give me a call - I'd love to help!

Ann Cummings, New Hampshire and Maine REALTOR
Real Estate Broker - NH and Maine
RE/MAX Coast to Coast
Portsmouth NH
ann@anncummings.com
888-349-5678 x 3839
Servicing the Coastal Areas of NH & Southern Maine