Striking architecture will not produce a high sale price if other sales factors are overlooked. Source: Supplied

Buyers agent, Chris Gray offers his tips on how to achieve a good result:

1. The house is not priced correctly

People are emotionally attached to their own houses, especially if they have lived there for a long time, which often leads them to thinking it’s worth more than it is.

You need to take a step back, look at it unemotionally and get the opinions of independent experts to know the property’s true value and set a realistic price.

2. You hire the cheapest agent

The agent that charges the cheapest commission can be the most expensive agent in the long run, because they often don’t achieve the highest price and sometimes can’t even close the sale.

Paying an extra $10,000 to $20,000 for the best agent gives you a better chance of a sale and can often result in your house selling for $50,000 or even $100,000 more than what a cheaper agent could achieve.

3. The house is not presented in the best light

Unfortunately, your taste in decorations or furniture might not be what everyone else likes.

If you’re moving out of the house, you need to emotionally move out of the property at that instant — not after the property is sold.

Take advice from your agent about which decorations to use and whether your furniture needs to be replaced with styled alternatives, because it could be a reason as small as this why your house won’t sell.

4. No one knows it is for sale

You can’t sell a secret.

Many people think that by uploading their property on to a website that offers “for sale by owner” listings, their house will sell.

However, a lot of these sites have very little traffic.

If you want to maximise the chances of selling your property at the highest price, you need to try every marketing tool available — online, print, main listing websites, agent’s websites and social media.

5. You attend all the open for inspections

Many homeowners want to keep across what the agent does and what the buyers are saying, so they attend every open for inspection and pretend not to be the owner.

However, they stand out like a sore thumb and it really puts off the buyers.

Buyers don’t feel comfortable speaking openly with the agent when the owners are there, and would rather walk away than try to have a quiet word.

— Chris Gray is host of Your Property Empire on Sky

News Business channel and CEO of buyers’ agency Empire