Avoid These 3 "For Sale By Owner" Mistakes

Photo by Garrett Aitken from Getty Images via Canva.com

In this article: 

• Ignoring the Importance of Curb Appeal
• Overlooking Interior Updates and Home Staging
• Bad Photos and Zero Online Presence
   

So, you've decided that a For Sale by Owner (FSBO) is the best way to sell your home. You aren’t alone. About 10% of homes are sold FSBO yearly. If this is your first FSBO, you definitely have questions. 

MilitaryByOwner is here to help, so read on, get prepared, and learn how to avoid three costly mistakes during the selling process.

1. Ignoring the importance of curb appeal. 

Aside from your online listing, your home’s exterior is the first thing potential buyers notice about the property. Failing to pay proper attention to your property’s curb appeal gives buyers the wrong impression. Think about it. When you see an overgrown yard coupled with paint-chipped siding, leaves piled in the corners of the porch, or stains on the pavement, what do you assume about the homeowners?

This image is synonymous with carelessness and leaves buyers wondering about the interior's condition. More importantly, overlooked maintenance leads to greater issues around the house, such as foundation problems, a leaky roof, and poor plumbing.

Here are a few ways to increase your home’s curb appeal: 

• Keep the yard manicured.  
• Weed dead plants and replace them with new ones. 
• Replace broken gutters, railings, or mailbox. 
• Clear leaves from the gutters. 
• Pressure wash the house's porch, driveway, fence, and exterior.
• Touch up areas where the paint faded or chipped away on the house, railings, trim, and front door

Photo by welcomia via Canva.com

2. Overlooking interior updates and not staging your home properly. 

While some people look for fixer-uppers to update and sell for a profit, most military home buyers prefer to purchase a move-in-ready home because they are moving in and out on tight timelines.

What most buyers want to see in their next home:

• Neutral paint throughout
• Hardwood flooring 
• Updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances
• A bathroom with a separate shower and tub
• Smart home features
• Energy-efficient upgrades 

With those in mind, here's a checklist to help you prep your home to sell: 

• Fresh paint on the walls. Add a fresh coat of neutral paint to the walls if your paint is chipped, dirty, or colorful. Neutral paint allows the buyers to envision themselves in the home as it doesn’t project an overwhelming personal style like bold colors. 
• Replace the carpeting. Worn and dirty carpets make a terrible impression and smell bad. Since many buyers want non-carpeted flooring, consider replacing the old carpet with authentic hardwood or affordable luxury vinyl planks.
• Check the big-ticket items. Problems with major systems will surface during the home inspection. If there are issues with the roof, HVAC system, or plumbing, they’ll be detailed in the report. If you make the updates, include “new roof in 2025” or “HVAC system replaced in 2025” in your listing description to let buyers know that they won’t need to budget money for expensive updates.

Now, if you've checked all these boxes and have a sellable, move-in-ready home but want to increase its value before selling, weigh the option of adding more significant updates and renovations. Focus your money on areas with the highest return. 

• Bathrooms offer a high return on investment, especially the primary bathroom.
• The kitchen is a perfect place to spend money on energy-efficient appliances, sturdy cupboards, and beautiful countertops.
• Invest in energy-efficient updates that can help the buyer save money, like updating the insulation and installing insulating windows.

What about staging your home? 

Year after year, National Association of Realtors studies find that more than 80% of home buyers said home staging helped them visualize the property as their future home. While staging is another task on a long list of things to do when selling your home, it is a significant component of the process. It helps your home sell faster and for more money. 

So, what is staging, and how do you do it? 

Home staging involves preparing your home visually. It involves removing clutter, rearranging furniture, and carefully placing decor. You can hire a professional for home staging advice, full-service, virtual staging, or targeted staging (focusing on specific areas).

And, of course, you can stage our home yourself. Simply put, the steps of home staging include:

• Declutter
• Depersonalize
• Update
• Neutralize 
• Style
• Clean

Pro Tip: Ask a friend or neighbor to take an unbiased look at your property and make suggestions. Chances are, they’ll catch flaws you’re more likely to overlook.

Photo by FollowTheFlow from Getty Images via Canva.com

3. Bad photos and zero online presence. 

A picture is worth a thousand words. You want your photos’ associated words to be clean, spacious, bright, and updated. Simply stated: no pictures, no sale. High-quality and honest photographs draw in potential home buyers.

Photos are a powerful tool for describing anything from a desired location on a tree-lined street to a backyard worthy of an HGTV special. Remember, buyers judge a house before they read any description. The potential buyer pool shrinks significantly if the photos are dark, nondescript, or deceiving. 

There’s no doubt that photos and a detailed home description are among the most valuable aspects of your online listing. Ensure shoppers can easily view images on a mobile device. Most people no

Consider listing your home with MilitaryByOwner. We offer a free mobile app to get your listing in front of as many buyers as possible. In addition to the mobile app, MilitaryByOwner offers home sellers a plethora of blogs and articles to help their FSBOs be successful.

Pair your stellar photos with a virtual tour and a thorough home description, and you’ll have an online advertisement ready. Once it’s live, share your listing on social media groups to spread the word.  

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