Bay Area Home Selling Guide: What You Must Know Before Listing Your House

Marketing Alpha
May 3
6 min read

Updated: Aug 28

For most people, selling a house is a sign that life is about to enter a new stage. Whether it is upgrading to a bigger house or moving to a new city, selling a house is a crucial process that affects future life. When it comes to selling a house, everyone should be fully prepared and not make a decision that they will regret.

According to a survey conducted by Zillow, more than 80% of first-time home sellers in the United States regret selling their homes. Many sellers believe that if they had avoided some mistakes and taken better measures when selling their homes, they might have sold them at a better price.

Selling a house is different from buying a house. Many homeowners who sell their houses for the first time are not familiar with the real estate market and the details that need to be paid attention to when selling a house. Not only do they spend a lot of time and energy, but they still make mistakes and even suffer more losses. For selling a house, Axis teaches you what mistakes you should avoid.

01 Unreasonable pricing

Many sellers are not aware of the current real estate market and only base their decisions on their own ideas when pricing their homes, ignoring the objective value of the house and the situation of buyers in the market. Arbitrary pricing will only ruin the chance of selling the house.

Selling a house is not just a matter of how much the seller wants to sell it for. Unreasonable pricing may make buyers ignore it at first sight. The longer the house is on the market, the less likely it is to be sold. Even if the house itself has various advantages and is a popular house, it will be directly affected by unreasonable pricing and become a house that everyone avoids, which will also affect subsequent sales.

Therefore, sellers must find a professional listing agent when setting the price . Real estate agents understand the market buying and selling conditions and know the average market price of similar houses. They can help sellers objectively understand the approximate value of their own houses.

A professional listing agent can quickly check the sales prices of similar houses in the community and area where the house is located in the past six months. By referring to the historical house sales data and conducting professional pricing analysis, it can help sellers formulate reasonable and competitive prices, allowing sellers to obtain more profits.

02 Underestimating the cost of selling a house

Sellers often only consider the real estate agent's commission when calculating the costs of selling a home, without paying attention to other fees.

Cleaning and repairing your home before selling it may not seem like it will cost much, but when you add in transfer fees and additional costs, the combined cost may be more than you expected .

If you sell your house and have no place to live during the transition period, you also have to consider the rent. Even if the house hasn't been sold yet, you will need to pay two mortgages when you buy a new house. These costs and short-term financial pressures need to be taken into consideration.

03 Only consider the highest offer

When faced with buyers' offers, sellers would of course want to choose the highest offer, but blindly choosing the highest price may have certain risks. Buyers' offers often contain some restrictive clauses to protect buyers from unrestricted withdrawal from the transaction when encountering certain circumstances.

Especially for buyers with high loan risks, if they cannot successfully pass the loan approval and exit the transaction, it will also be a huge loss for the seller.

If the buyer with the highest offer is also a homeowner who is changing houses, he may wait until his own house is sold before completing the transaction with the seller. The waiting time in between is also disadvantageous to the seller. Therefore, when sellers look at offers, it is best to choose buyers with stable comprehensive conditions, such as buyers with high offers, all cash, and quick transactions, or buyers with no pressure to obtain loans.

04 The house photos on the house viewing website are not beautiful

Many buyers will first browse the house viewing website when they are looking for a house, and check out what the house looks like online. Sellers also need to upload photos of the house to the website. If the photos are good-looking, they will attract buyers' interest. The more beautiful the photos, the more buyers the house will attract.

Photos of a house are a critical factor in selling a house. Nowadays, people will first view the photos online. If the photos of a house are bad, many buyers will eliminate them directly after just one look.

Sellers must take beautiful display photos of their houses, and ask professional listing agents to give suggestions on improving the aesthetics of the house. You can also ask the real estate agent and team to help you take photos of the house . They understand better what kind of houses buyers like.

05 Neglecting layout and maintenance

Generally, buyers prefer houses that are clean and uncluttered, and a neat and uncluttered interior space appears larger visually. Usually, the decoration that needs to be completed before selling a house includes cleaning the whole house, painting old walls, renovating interior decoration, beautifying outdoor landscape, etc.

Upgrading the overall appearance significantly improves the house's appeal, effectively attracting buyers and bringing in more revenue.

According to previous Realtor data, houses that have been decorated overall sell 88% faster than houses that have not changed, and the average price is 20% higher! In addition to the basic decoration of the house, buyers also pay more attention to house maintenance.

If there are problems that need to be repaired by the buyer, the selling price will be lower. Therefore, if the seller wants to sell the house at a good price, he must repair the problems that exist in the house.

06 Buyers cannot view the property in time

After a house is listed, interested buyers will make appointments to view the house. They generally want to see the actual condition of the house as soon as possible. If the seller cannot agree on an early time with the buyer, the buyer may have to wait too long and may not consider it.

Sellers should respond to buyers in a timely manner during the house selling period, try to consider buyers' time as much as possible, and spend more time holding open houses on weekends. The more buyers come to see the house, the easier it will be to sell the house.

The above are common mistakes that sellers make when selling a house. Sellers often cannot consider all of these aspects, and the process requires sellers to invest a lot of time, so most sellers will choose a listing agent to help them sell their houses . When choosing a real estate agent, everyone should also pay more attention to screening.

Axis reminds everyone not to blindly choose an unreliable agent, which may not only affect the sale of the house but also cause unnecessary losses to yourself. Whether sellers or buyers, you must choose a reliable professional agent, a reliable real estate company with a team and high reputation, and buy and sell houses with peace of mind.

If you want to buy or change a house, please contact us! Axis Realty team has many top-notch listing agents and buyer agents, with rich experience in real estate transactions and a grasp of the various dynamics of the Bay Area housing market! We can help you quickly find the right buyer and sell at a higher price~

As a well-known first-class integrated real estate company in the Bay Area, Axis Realty has a strong professional background and rich experience, and has mastered various real estate-related information and industry trends. If you have any questions about selling or changing houses in the Bay Area, you can add Axis Assistant (WeChat: AxisRealtyTeam) at any time to learn more!