Avoid these mistakes when you are selling your own home via the For Sale By Owner method:

Mistake #5: You didn’t de-clutter your home?!

De-cluttering your home is absolutely essential when you list your home on the market. A prospective home buyer must be able to imagine their own belongings in the space – or, if they plan on using the home as a rental unit, they need to see how it will look when it is clean and un-cluttered. If your counters are covered with appliances, you have knick-knacks on every shelf, and your table is full of stacks of papers and projects, you need to do a clean sweep! Don’t just wipe down the surfaces – clear away any furniture and floor space that can be cleared.

Mistake #4: You got too emotionally involved?!

Selling your own home can be a stressful time, particularly if you’re not familiar with all the accessible tools. You may go through a roller coaster of emotions, getting attached to particular buyers, dwelling on things that can’t be changed, or simply having trouble letting go of your home and detaching. If you’ve already taken care of mistake #5, then continue the de-cluttering process and try to remove anything that causes mess or chaos, and prepare to enjoy a new life once you’ve sold your home. It’s Vancouver, so relax!

Mistake #3: You didn’t make easy updates to your home?!

It’s okay if you didn’t invest in a major update. That’s now what this is about. You do need to take care of the smaller updates that need to be done to your home to ensure that it looks as polished as possible. If you have a hole in your wall, fix it. If a light bulb has burnt out, replace it. Clean up the scuff marks, freshen up any paint that’s peeling, and make sure your garden is tidy. If medium-effort updates could make a big difference, consider them, for instance, if you’ve got hard wood floors under your yellow shag carpeting, rip that carpeting up.

Mistake #2: You didn’t represent your home well with striking photography?!

If a real estate listing on MLS® contains either no or poor photographs, the potential buyer may click on by and never see it. You absolutely must represent your home with well-lit, professional-looking photography. In a competitive market, you need to make sure your home looks the best it can look, so make sure you feature exactly what makes your home unique to potential buyers.

And now, the number one mistake…

Mistake #1: You didn’t list on MLS®?!

Listing on MLS® is essential to advertising your home for sale. Due to recent clarifications in the Real Estate industry, amendments have been rewritten that give consumers a choice to pick and choose the level of service, and it is now possible to advertise your home on MLS® and realtor.ca without having to accept other services a REALTOR® provides. So even home sellers who use the For Sale By Owner method have access to the same tools everyone else is using.

Avoid these common FSBO mistakes by de-cluttering, de-stressing, doing small updates, taking great pictures, and listing on MLS®.