So far, the Cincinnati real estate market has seen no signs of slowing down in 2025. Ready, willing, and able buyers continue to outnumber the available homes for sale, leading to prolonged favorable market conditions for home sellers. Make sure you’re in a position to take advantage when it’s your time to sell by avoiding these common seller mistakes:
1. OVERPRICING – If you want to sell your house for top dollar, you have to be realistic about the value of the property and how buyers will see it. If you’ve overpriced your home, it might not attract as many potential buyers as quickly. The longer it is on the market, the less buyers feel like they need to be competitive. Chances are, if you miss the mark on price, you will end up selling for less than you would have if you had priced it appropriately from the start.
2. SELLING AS-IS – Unless you’re planning to sell your house to an investor who will flip the property, selling your house “as-is” likely won’t yield the highest possible sale price. Homebuyers today expect move-in ready conditions and want to picture themselves in the home, instead of adding up how much it is going to cost to fix it. Investing in small updates and addressing deferred maintenance prior to going on the market can go a long way in selling faster and for more money.
3. NOT STAGING – It’s tough to remove belongings while you’re still living in your house, but presenting it in its best light means you’ll need to declutter and depersonalize. Get rid of items you don’t need, remove oversized furniture that dwarfs rooms, clear out overcrowded closets, and put away excessive personalized decor. This applies to personal design taste as well. Busy wallpaper, bright colors and trendy furniture might prevent buyers from being able to envision the space as their own.
4. WAITING TO SELL – Spring and summer are often hailed as the best times to sell a house, but that doesn’t mean you should wait to put your home on the market. Homes sell all year long, and oftentimes winter brings out the most serious buyers. In fact, February is one of the best months to list. The distractions of the holiday season are over, and you can beat the competition who might be waiting for spring.
5. LIMITING SHOWINGS – When your house is on the market, you need to be able to leave the house in pristine condition quickly for showings. Making it difficult for people to schedule showings can increase the amount of time it takes to sell, consequently resulting in a lower sale price.
6. ONLY CONSIDERING THE HIGHEST OFFER – Make sure you are reviewing the price and terms of all offers, instead of blindly assuming the highest offer is the best one. A slightly lower priced offer with stronger financing and no inspection contingency, for example, might be worth considering since those terms might come with fewer hurdles to get to the closing table successfully.
7. SELLING WITHOUT AN AGENT – Selling your house yourself may seem like an easy way to save money, but for sale-by-owner properties tend to sell for a lower price overall. A real estate agent brings market knowledge, contacts, and negotiation expertise to the process, resulting in a much more successful and less stressful home sale. The higher sale price you can garner by selling with an agent typically far outweighs the cost of compensating them.
8. LETTING YOUR EMOTIONS TAKE OVER – It’s natural to have some emotional attachment to your house, especially if you’ve lived there a long time. But you have to view selling your house as a business transaction. A low offer is not a personal affront, but a starting point that can either be negotiated up or declined. A buyer’s future plans to renovate part of your house are not an insult to your taste, but a difference in preferences. The more objective you can be about the process, the more you will benefit.
Advertorial originally appeared in February 2025