The 2 Big Mistakes I Made Selling My House, According to Real Estate Pros

by EV Atlanta

1. I Listed My Home Too High

My Realtor gave me a range that varied by $50,000 that he thought my home could sell for, and I opted to go for the higher list price. The problem: At the onset of summer, the buyers market in my metro area surprisingly stalled. I also had pretty high homeowners association dues ($330 a month) so I think when potential buyers were looking at my home compared with others in the price range, they were discouraged by the high monthly HOA dues. Even though my dues covered things like water, trash, and snow removal, it made apples-to-apples price comparisons a little more complicated.

2. We Should Have Asked To Leave (And Keep) Appliances and Amenities

Since I was combining homes with my husband, we were pretty generous in what we were willing to leave behind to our buyers. I left a new grill, as well as some already installed curtain rods and a Ring doorbell.

The builders of our home had staged it well, and they left behind some extras for us, like string lights above the bar, extra paint for touch-ups, and some custom ladders in our pantry and our primary bedroom’s closet, which has built-in storage reachable by ladder. But there were a few things we should have asked the sellers of the home we bought to leave behind — and I wish we had offered to do the same for the folks who bought our respective homes.

TV mounts were the one thing I wish we would have offered to leave behind (and also keep at our new house). I have a Samsung Frame TV (which doubles as art) and we used it for staging and took it down a few days before closing. When we removed it, we had lots of last-minute patching and paint touch-ups to do — a ton of work for us, and work that might have been undone within days of the people who bought my home wanted to put their TV in the same spot.

Similarly — or because of that — we wish we would have asked for the mount to stay at our new home because once it was removed, it was harder to find studs to mount a new TV.

What sellers leave behind is negotiable and buyers can look at the seller’s disclosure to glean what they’re planning to leave behind. This document includes details about fixtures, appliances, and window treatments, says Jeremy Smith, a real estate adviser at Engel & Völkers Atlanta. Often, items like alarm systems, cameras, or surround sound systems may also be left behind.

The disclosures can also specify for things like built-in cabinets, shelving, and TV mounts to stay, Smith says. Asking for these items after an agreement is reached often leads to additional costs, as the seller may request payment.

“If certain items, like TV mounts or sound systems, might cause damage if removed, it’s wise for buyers to request them up front in their offer,” he says.