Home sellers say overpricing is biggest listing mistake

Consumers surveyed about top real estate errors
Inman News
Overpricing is the number one mistake home sellers said they made when listing their homes, according to a new national e-mail survey conducted by HouseHunt. The margin was nearly three-to-one over the second choice, HouseHunt reported.

Survey respondents said their next-biggest mistake was "dealing with the same real estate agent who represented the buyer," thereby setting up a possible conflict of interest and possibly a perception that the buyer was getting a better deal.

The third-biggest mistake noted by the nearly 400 survey participants was "failure to disclose known defects or problems." Virtually tied for fourth place were: "underpricing their properties" and "not utilizing Internet technology to market their properties."

"With the rapid price appreciation we've seen in many housing markets across the country, it's not surprising that home seller expectations sometimes outran market reality," said Michael Bearden, president and CEO of HouseHunt, which provides information to consumers across the United States through its two primary Web sites, HouseHunt.com and moveUp.com.

HouseHunt has a network of more than 1,500 member agents representing exclusive territories in 47 states.