5 ways to avoid getting screwed when selling your home

Home sellers often have a mix of hope and anxiety when it comes time to sell. One of the challenges can be figuring out what you can do to maximize your gains, as well as not get taken advantage of. Here are five ways you can avoid getting screwed when selling your home and protect yourself.

1. Do your own research into how much your home is worth

If you rely on someone else to tell you how much your home is worth, you could be leaving money on the table. If you are using a real estate agent, they may have an incentive to price your home lower than it is worth in order to get a faster sale.

Knowing what your home is worth is something you can do for free. Being informed about what your home is actually worth puts you in the driver’s seat. Also, it sets you up nicely for your closing, as you want to have a sense of what your home will actually appraise at for your potential home buyer in order for them to successfully get a mortgage. That will make sifting through the offers easier and more successful for you.

You can use our free guide to to pinpoint what your home is worth.

2. Get several opinions on what price your home should list for

You may think that what your home is worth is what you should list it for, but this is sometimes not the case. In some markets, pricing a little below its value can attract more buyers, increasing your chance of a bidding war, for example. Pricing a home is an art that is very dependent on your particular market.

The best way to get a sense of what you should price your home at is to find the top three most productive and successful real estate agents in your area who have successfully sold houses as similar as possible to yours and have them tell you their sense of what you should price your house at and listen to the reasoning.

The reason you want to talk to real estate agents who have done volume in exactly your type of home recently is because markets change and markets are different for different types of homes. Recent experience is going to be your best indicator.

Pricing your home right can help make your sale as efficient as possible and get the best overall outcome. If you aren’t informed and don’t get the best advice, you could end up with a less than favorable outcome.

3. Make sure you are knowledgeable about returns on any improvements you make before the sale

Some home sellers think they need to put serious money into their homes before they sell them, but often, improvements don’t produce the return they expect and return much less than 100%.

Here’s the latest information in return on investments for home improvements. When in doubt, focus on lower cost fixes that pack a punch like a new coat of paint, easy but impactful yard improvements, and other relatively cheap and easy fix ups that say: this is a wonderful place to live.

If you overspend on home improvements that don’t pay off, it erodes your potential profit, not to mention the hassle and time you could end up spending on them.

The return on investment you will get for home improvements is also very dependent on the particular market that you are in.  Read more about the factors involved.

4. Get ahead of any maintenance issues

When your home is inspected, the inspector will make a list of any structural or mechanical issues that he or she finds. If you’ve been up to date on your repairs, such as the roof, plumbing, HVAC, pest inspections, you should already have a sense of any major issues. It’s better to get out in front of any issues that you know an inspector may find. If you have major issues that will be detected by an inspector, you’ll want to be prepared.

In very hot markets, maintenance issues may be less of a problem, as people competing for your home in a bidding war may be more apt to eat the cost of a detected expense.

However, not being aware of issues ahead of time makes it more likely that problems will derail a home sale, which means a longer time on the market and potentially less money for you than if you got out in front of the issues. Don’t wait for an inspector to tell you what’s wrong right when you think you have an agreement. Be proactive and identify potential issues ahead of time.

5. Do your own calculations on your profits

Often, home sellers fixate on the sale price, but what they should really be paying attention to is how big their check will be. After all, that’s the money that really matters.

Who cares what the house sells for? What matters is the money in your pocket at the end of it all. Do you see what I’m saying? 😉

How to tell how much money you’ll get

The money you get back from a sale is the sale price minus what you own on the home (like a mortgage), and minus any sales related fees (like real estate agent commission plus state and local fees). That’s the number you really want to know.

The problem is, for most homeowners, it’s hard to calculate your this amount, which is the value of your home minus what you owe on it, because the number changes every time you pay your mortgage and every time your home goes up or down in value.

Luckily, we made it easy to calculate it. Just click here and we’ll send you a free report (If you have any issues, please email us at help@homeownering.com, we’ll be in beta testing the week of July 22 – July 29 2018).

You’ll also find out how much you will get from a home sale, excluding state and local fees.

Otherwise, you won’t know how big a check you’ll get, which is the most important part of a sale!

Be informed. Learn now about your potential profits so that you can make the most of your home sale and avoid getting taken advantage of. You’ll be where you should be: in the driver’s seat.