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The Property Line: Avoid These Costly Home Selling Mistakes
Here's how to avoid home selling mistakes that could slow the process, cause frustration and cost you money.
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Updated · 6 min read
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NerdWallet's content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. It undergoes a thorough review process involving writers and editors to ensure the information is as clear and complete as possible.
Holden Lewis is a mortgage reporter and spokesperson who joined NerdWallet in 2017. He previously wrote for Bankrate, where he wrote about mortgages and real estate during the housing boom and bust. He has written articles about mortgages since 2001, and enjoys explaining complex topics to regular people who don't buy houses every day. Holden has been president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors and has won numerous writing awards. He splits his time between Jupiter, Florida, and Fort Worth, where he is renovating the house where he spent his high school years so he can move back and be a Texan again.
Beth Buczynski leads the New Markets content team at NerdWallet, where she has worked to bring financial clarity to people in Canada and Australia since 2021. Previously, she spent four years as a managing editor on NerdWallet's Home content team and contributed to publications like WiseBread, Inhabitat, Shareable, Utne and Salon while self-employed.
Beth earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and has a Master of Science from Colorado State University. A lifelong lover of mountains, Beth currently lives in the San Juans of Southwestern Colorado with her husband, three cats and five chickens.
It's a seller's market in real estate, which means that buyers have much to feel anxious about. But sellers have reasons to lose sleep, too. What if they make an expensive mistake?
It's easy to find lists of common homebuying mistakes, but home selling errors are harder to describe. They're subtle, often involving mindset and attitude.
Here are six home selling mistakes and how to avoid them.
Thinking of it as your home
Even if you still sleep and shower in your house while it's on the market, it’s not really yours anymore.
"A mistake is still thinking that their home is a home when they're putting it on the market for sale. It is now a product," says Terri Robinson, a real estate agent with Re/Max Select Properties, in Ashburn, Virginia.
Part of Robinson's job is persuading sellers to showcase the house to appeal to the masses, the way a model home in a new housing development is designed to do, she says.
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Depersonalize the property "so that persons are not getting enamored with your baseball collection, but they're enamored with the house."
Make the dwelling a blank slate so buyers can imagine putting their own imprint on it: "That wonderful mauve that you put on the walls of the living room may not be as appealing a product to potential buyers."
Robinson believes some buyers will continue to prize adaptable spaces that can be set up as bedrooms, dens, offices or for remote learning, so it might be advantageous "to lightly stage a home to show a place that can be an office space — if you don't have a dedicated office in your home."
Selling as-is without an inspection
You're more likely to sell your home as-is, without paying for repairs or renovations, when you're upfront about its condition.
Sherry Chen, a San Diego-based Realtor with the Kappel Realty Group at Compass, recommends getting an inspection before you list the home. Share the report with prospective buyers "so then there's no surprises during escrow. We can tell them, 'Hey, offer a price based on these issues that the home has.'"
Smart buyers will get their own inspection reports. If your inspector did a thorough job, the subsequent inspections shouldn't uncover anything major. "If we do end up accepting an offer, they can't really tell us, 'Hey, I want a $10,000 credit for this item that I already knew about,'" Chen says.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
620620
Min. down payment
3%NBKC offers conventional loans for as little as 3% down.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
500500
Min. down payment
3.5%New American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
620620
Min. down payment
0%On VA loans, NBKC offers down payments as low as 0%.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
500500
Min. down payment
3.5%New American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
620620
Min. down payment
3%Rate offers conventional loans with as little as 3% down.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
620620
Min. down payment
3%NBKC offers conventional loans for as little as 3% down.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
580580
Min. down payment
3%Rocket Mortgage offers conventional mortgages with as little as 1% down.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
580580
Min. down payment
3%New American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
580580
Min. down payment
N/ANew American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
580580
Min. down payment
N/ANew American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
620620
Min. down payment
3%NBKC offers conventional loans for as little as 3% down.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
500500
Min. down payment
3.5%New American Funding works with down payment assistance programs in 14 states, including California, Texas, Florida and Illinois.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
Min. credit score
580580
Min. down payment
3.5%First-time home buyers may qualify for 3% down mortgages at Rocket.