5 seller mistakes to avoid

Q: My home has been on the market for almost a year. My Realtor also sold it to me and also sold my last two homes, and does a lot of sales in my neighborhood. She told me to list it at $599,000, but I really couldn't afford to eat that much of a loss, so I had it listed at $699,000.

Anyhow, I keep reading about how the market is rebounding now. I see other homes getting multiple offers in a fairly short period of time, and I've got nothing. I know my agent spent a lot of money advertising the place, but I'm tired of having conflict with her. So, I just asked my Realtor to cancel the listing and relisted it with another agent who wouldn't take the listing priced any higher than $599,000. What did I do wrong, here?

A: Your note was short, but my list of mistakes you made is long. Do me a favor: Stop reading now if you're thin-skinned.

Mistake No. 1: You seem to have been very confused about how to set a list price for a property. A smart seller in a buyer's market sets the list price by looking at the most similar homes sold recently in the area, and then going slightly lower than that -- 10 percent lower is a decent rule of thumb. Low pricing attracts buyers, and more buyers means more offers. The list price of your home is not wisely set based totally on what you can or can't afford.

Mistake No. 2: You found and retained a real estate professional who you knew and trusted. Then, you totally and completely ignored her expertise and pricing recommendations, which she gave based on her track record of success in your local market and in the current market dynamics. And you didn't stop there -- when your home sat on the market for a year, while she was spending her money to market your home, you fired her. Oh, yeah -- and then you did exactly what she'd been telling you to do for a year -- you finally priced the place right.

Mistake No. 3: You selectively interpreted the market data. You heard that sales were picking up, and you got wind of multiple offers, so you took that to mean that something was wrong with your agent. However, you ignored the other critical half of the "Home Sales Are Up" headline: that sales are up largely because prices are down, which has created opportunities for first-time buyers. The homes that get multiple offers are the ones that are in great shape, well located and priced well. If you applied only half the news story to your own situation, and didn't look for the causes of the uptick in sales to try to apply that to your home's listing, that was definitely a mistake. ...CONTINUED

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