Selling your first home? Avoid these common mistakes

Sometimes, upgrading parts of your property can add significantly to its value, and give your sale price a solid boost.

However, you need to be really sure that you’re going to see a decent return on investment. It’s all well and good renovating your kitchen in line with the latest trends, but if you don’t see that value returned to you once the sale is finalised, what was the point?

If you’re not sure about renovating prior to selling your house, this is a perfectly legitimate question to ask a real estate agent during your initial interview. An open-ended question like. “What could I do to meaningfully add value prior to a sale?” should prompt them to provide suggestions, which you can take on board or not. Another useful resource is the advice from property finance expert Karen Jackson in this piece she shared with us

Another valuable approach is to attend open homes for properties selling in your neighbourhood and in similar suburbs, and find out what they sold for. If there’s a common home trend among these properties that you could replicate in your own home, you might be onto a winner.

If you’re selling privately, this won’t apply to you, so feel free to skip ahead.

If, however, you’re planning to sell your NZ property by enlisting the services of a real estate agent, this is super important. The last thing you want is a disengaged agent who’s looking to sell your home as quickly as possible so they can move onto the next one, without finding you a buyer at your preferred price.

So how do you find the right real estate agent?

1. Do some mystery shopping

Before you meet with any agents, attend some open homes in your local area and pretend you’re in the early stages of buying. Does the agent make an effort to engage you? How’s their sales pitch? Do they follow up after the event?

If you’re not happy with their sales style, would you want them to represent yours?

What’s your home worth? This is another of the biggies of selling, and one that you don’t want to get wrong.

The good news is that we have an easy-to-use tool that will help you benchmark the value of your property. Our Property Insights tool, powered by homes.co.nz will give you an estimate of your home’s value, based on market values, rateable value (RV) data, sales histories, the property’s size and what year it was built.

You can also keep an eye on what neighbouring homes have sold for, and stay up-to-date with wider trends within your suburb. This instantly available, free data is excellent for decision making, and means you don’t have to feel that you’re stabbing in the dark when it comes to valuing your property.

It’s also important to remember that the value of your home will be impacted by factors beyond the property itself, or even what’s going on in your suburb. NZ house prices are inextricably tied to larger economic forces. Therefore, we highly recommend staying up-to-date with property news at a national level in NZ. Trade Me’s Property Price Index is a reliable and easy way to do this.

If you’re interviewing potential real estate agents, they should present you with an appraisal of what your property is worth. This will be based on their own market knowledge, past experience in selling similar properties, recent sales, and a walk through of your house.

Estate agent valuations will be free, but won’t be as in-depth as a valuation from a professional property valuer. A property valuer would conduct a detailed inspection of both your home and its grounds to provide you with an in-depth appraisal of what your home is worth in the current market. This will come at a cost, so you’ll need to factor this into your budget if you’re planning on taking this route.

Even the most well-loved and perfectly maintained property will have weak spots that need to be dealt with before open homes begin. You need to invest in the presentation of your home, so think about:

• Putting away tired furniture: even if your beloved family armchair is the most comfy seat in the world, if it’s showing its age, put it into storage. While you might have an emotional attachment to certain items, think about how they’d be viewed by someone entering a space for the first time.
• Borrow stuff from friends and family: while removing older items of furniture is a good call, you don’t want your place to look empty. If you’ve got family or friends willing to lend some picturesque items for photographs or viewings, this will be cheaper than renting them.
• Cleaning: we hope this one goes without saying, but you need to give your home a proper clean before viewings and photography sessions.
• Decluttering: as well as cleaning, you need to declutter. Most people coming to an open home or private viewing will want to imagine themselves inhabiting the space. Mountains of clutter, as well as being unsightly, will make that a lot more difficult.
• Using professional stagers: if you want to go the whole hog, you could get professional home stagers to ensure your property is looking its absolute best. Some will do partial staging so the cost varies a lot.
• Doing essential repairs and renovations: while you need to remember our earlier points about not overspending, you still need to think about what essential fixes need to be made. And properly thought through, a lick of paint can go a long way. Talk to your agent about colours they recommend which won’t put buyers off.

If you choose to sell through an agent, they’ll likely have ideas on what they see as the most effective marketing strategy. In fact, this know-how, and their connections, are among the most attractive reasons for hiring a real estate agent. However, you should also have input into these discussions. In particular, if you’ve had interest in your property from specific groups (i.e. maybe it’s been particularly popular with young families) in the past, your agent will be keen to know, as this will help them shortlist marketing channels.

Selling without an agent? It can be useful to look at other home sales in your area, what channels they used and how successful their sales were.

Hiding major problems with your home isn’t a smart idea. If you’re selling your home privately, and a buyer asks about the state of your home, you have to give them an honest answer. Similarly, if you sell through a realtor, they too have to answer these enquiries truthfully.

If you, or your agent, fail to do so, and the buyer finds out, this could seriously delay, or even prevent your home sale going through.

If you’ve had several offers on your home, it may seem obvious to jump on the highest sum offered.

However, you need to look really carefully at this high offer. In particular, read what conditions may have been attached. A really high offer, where the buyer has attached loads of conditions, for example, that they need to sell their house first, might not be the best fit for you. If you’re looking to sell your home quickly, or have an intended property purchase in mind yourselves, the uncertainty that comes with these types of conditions might be a red flag.

*We hope this article has provided some helpful information. It's based on our experience and is not intended as a complete guide. Of course, it doesn’t consider your individual needs or situation. If you're thinking about buying or selling a property, you should always get specific advice.