Here are the three biggest mistakes I see sellers make. Number one, not hiring the right agent. Sure. You probably expected me to say that. Not hiring the right agent.

But here's where I'm coming from. The agent that sold you the home may not be the best agent to actually sell the home. Their agents, who really specialize in selling homes from the marketing to the pricing, to all the strategies and systems that go into it. You need to make sure when you're interviewing agents, you ask them what is your ratio or working with buyers and sellers. How many sellers do you work with over buyers?

You're going to want to hire an agent who is more weighted working with sellers than they are with buyers because they know what it takes to get a home sold. Number two, not preparing the home for sale. Sometimes it's hard to offer an agent to really get the seller to understand that spending just a little bit of money or putting a little bit of effort into the home will lead to very big returns. You know, one of the features that I offer my sellers is a design consultation. It's where I hire. Probably what I feel like is one of the very best designers that we have in northeast Louisiana. I hire to come in and give you a a different take on the different spaces in a house and what to make that space the best, the best that it possibly can be.

Think of it like this. When you're out buying a vehicle, whether it be a brand new vehicle or a used vehicle. And that vehicle has just been run down. A muddy dirt road was brought back in. They had mud on their feet when they got into it and, you know, trash all over the floor and they put it up there for sale. You're not going to pay premium dollar for that car. But if they just would have taken and washed it, if they were to cleaned all the trash out, made it smell a bit better, you probably would have been willing to pay more. The same thing is true for a house, and I'm not trying to say that your house is home, dirty car that's out there, but putting a little effort, taking good quality advice and doing those little touch ups to get the house ready is huge when it comes to sell off. It'll reduce the diesel market and will increase the overall price point of the house. Number three, not pricing the home correctly. So there's a misconception that you need to build in negotiating into the price point of a house.

I can see where people would think that people are going to want that. Buyers want you to negotiate down on it. And depending on the market, we're in a very changing market right now. I would rather a seller tell me say, Brian, this is the best I mean, if I'm going to take your price point, do you suggest I have zero negotiating room and I'm going to say I'm good with that? Okay, here's the deal. Buyers are more educated than you've ever been before. They understand values. They understand what homes are selling for in your area. And if you price something outside of the market, they will reject it. And the only way to get them reengaged again is to start reducing the price. And in most cases, you'll end up having to reduce the price of the house less than what I've recommended to begin with, just to get people interested in it again.

And then they're going to expect some negotiation on top of that. So pricing it right right off the bat will make you more money in the end. And it is proven.