Seven mistakes that cost a sale money
None of these mistakes is dramatic on its own. Together they explain almost every sale that drags on for a year and closes below the property's real value.
1. Start high, “we can always negotiate”
The most expensive and the most common. The first two or three weeks are the only moment when the property is seen by people who have been looking for months and are ready to move. Burn that, and every later cut tells a story — “something is wrong here” — and the final negotiation starts from a weaker position than the first one.
2. Deal with the paperwork after the offer
A cadastral discrepancy, a mortgage never cancelled or a succession never registered, discovered once the offer is accepted, become the buyer's lever. The same problems, solved beforehand, cost nothing in the negotiation.
3. Photographs taken in the evening, on a phone, in a hurry
The first viewing happens on a screen and lasts three seconds. You do not need a studio: you need daylight, tidy rooms, the camera at the right height and enough frames to show the whole property, cellar and garage included. It is the highest-return expense in the whole operation.
4. Publish in one language only
In this province a substantial share of buyers searches in German. A listing written only in Italian — or badly translated — shrinks the audience before a single viewing is booked, and nobody will ever tell you it happened.
5. Not mentioning the restriction
The residents' restriction is on the land register extract, so it will be found anyway: by the notary, by the bank, by the buyer's surveyor. Leaving it out does not widen the audience, it only lengthens the road to a deal that collapses at the end.
6. Showing the property yourself, to anyone
Two problems. The first is safety: you are letting strangers into your home about whom you know nothing. The second is the negotiation: a seller is emotionally involved, answers objections defensively, and concedes in five minutes what a negotiation conducted at a distance would have held.
7. Changing agency instead of changing strategy
If nothing happens after three months, the problem is almost always one of three: the price, the photographs, or something about the property that worries buyers and has not been explained. Changing agency without touching any of the three means starting again for the same result — while the listing ages on the portals.
In short
- The right price on day one beats three price cuts
- Documents before publishing, not after the offer
- Photographs in daylight, and enough of them
- A listing in Italian and in German
- Declare the restriction: it is on the extract anyway
- Qualified viewings, not mass viewings
- After three months change the strategy, not the sign
The questions we are asked most
My property has been online for months and nobody calls.
No enquiries almost always means price or photographs. Many enquiries and no offer almost always means the property in person is different from the story told. Two opposite problems with opposite cures: the first useful step is to look at the numbers, not to cut the price at random.
How long does a sale usually take?
There is no honest number that fits everyone: it depends on the area, the type of property, the price and any restriction. What can be said is that the time is decided almost entirely at the start — in the price and in the preparation — and hardly at all afterwards. Anyone promising you a date before seeing the property is selling reassurance.
Official sources
Note
This guide is general information written by an estate agency. It does not replace advice from a notary, an accountant or the surveyor handling the property. The rules cited are those in force at the date of publication.
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