The 7 Biggest Mistakes Home Sellers Make (According to Someone Who Sees Them Every Day)

Selling a house should feel exciting. For a lot of people, it’s the reward at the end of years of mortgage payments, DIY projects, and “one day we’ll finally move” conversations. But for plenty of sellers in the Greenville area, it turns into something else entirely: months of showings, price cuts, stress, and a final sale price that feels more like settling than winning.

On the Selling Greenville podcast, a local realtor broke down the 7 biggest mistakes home sellers make—not just once in a blue moon, but over and over again across primary homes, flips, and investment properties. The patterns are painfully familiar: wrong pricing, weak presentation, and advice coming from everyone except someone who actually works in real estate for a living.

Below is how those mistakes really play out, and what they mean for sellers trying to get to the closing table with a smile instead of a headache.

Biggest Mistakes Home Sellers Make in Today’s Market

The phrase “biggest mistakes home sellers make” gets thrown around a lot, but in this case it isn’t theory. These are missteps pulled straight from real listings and real closings in Greenville County and the surrounding Upstate.

They fall into seven main categories—each of them fixable, but all of them costly when ignored.

1. Mispricing the Home From Day One

The number one mistake is simple and brutal: mispricing the house.

That can go in two directions:

• Underpricing – which happens more than most people realize. Some agents intentionally list low to create a flurry of showings and stack up quick “days on market” stats so they can brag that their homes sell in five days. It makes their numbers look great, but it doesn’t necessarily put the most money in the seller’s pocket.

• Overpricing – which is far more common and far more damaging. A seller decides, for example, that their home is worth $300,000. The data disagrees, but they feel strongly enough that they eventually find an agent willing to nod along and put that number in the MLS. In a market with more agents than active listings, it’s not hard to find someone willing to be agreeable.

The podcast host takes a different approach: digging into the data and coming up with a tight value range—often within about $5,000—and then pricing toward the upper end without crossing over into fantasy.

Why does this matter so much? Because of what actually happens once the listing goes live.

The host recently pulled stats for typical three-bed, two-bath single-family homes in Greenville County and compared:

• Homes that sold for at least 90% of their list price

  • Average time from list to closing: just over 40 days

  • In plain terms, these were priced right and moved quickly. They probably went under contract within a week or so and closed about 30 days later.

• Homes that sold for less than 90% of their list price

  • Average time from list to closing: 112 days

  • Many of these started too high, sat for months, endured one or more price drops, and finally sold at a discount—sometimes deep into the 70% range of their original asking price.

And the painful part? Many of those homes likely would have sold for more if they’d hit the market at a realistic number instead of chasing a dream price for three or four months.

Starting too high doesn’t “leave room to negotiate.” It just tells buyers the seller is out of touch—and sets the stage for low offers once the listing looks stale.

2. Skipping Professional Photos

The second mistake feels small until you scroll through listings and see it everywhere: no professional photography.

On paper, skipping photos or snapping a few quick shots on a phone saves a couple of hundred dollars. In reality, it can cost thousands.

Here’s what usually shows up when an agent (or seller) handles photography themselves:

• Poor lighting that makes rooms look dark and gloomy

• Narrow lenses that make spaces feel cramped

• Awkward angles that highlight clutter instead of features

• Nothing in the image makes a buyer think, “I have to see this place.”

Online, buyers rarely say, “This house has bad photos.” They just… don’t schedule a showing.

A good listing photographer uses wide-angle lenses, proper lighting, and thoughtful composition to show rooms as they actually feel. The goal isn’t to trick people; it’s to help them picture themselves living there so they want to walk through the door.

On the podcast, the agent makes it clear: he pays for professional photos out of his own pocket. No fine print about sellers reimbursing him if the home doesn’t sell. That’s his skin in the game—and one more reason he refuses to take listings wildly above market value.

When an agent won’t invest in images, it usually means one of two things: they’re overconfident in their own phone camera, or they’re not confident enough in the listing to risk the expense. Neither is a great sign.

3. Hiring a Yes-Man (or Yes-Woman) Realtor

Another major trap? Choosing an agent who always agrees with you.

There’s a difference between an agent who listens and one who never pushes back. A true professional sometimes has to say, “I don’t agree,” especially when a seller’s expectations don’t match the reality of the market.

If an agent never disagrees, that usually means one of two things:

• They aren’t bringing any expertise to the table

• Or they’re more afraid of losing the listing than they are of getting it wrong

The podcast makes this point bluntly: if a client and a professional never disagree, the “professional” probably isn’t adding much value.

Of course, no one wants an agent who argues constantly or ignores the seller’s priorities. The sweet spot is an advisor who listens carefully, explains the data, and is willing to stand firm when the numbers say one thing and emotions say another.

4. Obsessing Over Comps and Ignoring the Competition

Comps—comparable recent sales—are important. Everyone knows that by now (HGTV has seen to it). But one of the biggest mistakes home sellers make is treating past sales like the only input that matters.

The podcast draws a sharp line between:

• What has sold recently (helpful for value)

• What’s on the market right now (critical for strategy)

Think about a buyer searching for a home with a pool in a specific area. If there’s only one active listing that checks that box, past sales are suddenly less important than the simple reality: there’s one target and multiple families likely want it.

In that moment, inventory and uniqueness can justify top-of-market pricing—as long as it still fits within an appraisable range.

The host shares a real example from Simpsonville:

• The home sat in a strong school district on the western side

• It had a private pool, even though the neighborhood already offered a community pool

• Nearby, within a two-mile radius, there were no other homes on the market with a pool

On paper, the house wasn’t perfect. The carpet was original and stained, the kitchen wasn’t updated, and the appliances were older. But because of the inventory and location, the agent recommended listing at the top price he believed it would appraise for.

The result?

• Busiest open house he’d ever hosted

• Plenty of people who thought it was overpriced

• And one serious buyer who saw the value and paid the full asking price

Comps matter. But so does context. Ignoring what’s actively for sale can mean leaving money on the table—or pricing yourself out of contention.

5. Taking Offers and Repair Requests Personally

For many sellers, a house isn’t just an asset. It’s where birthdays were celebrated, toddlers took their first steps, and holidays got too loud. That emotional weight is real—and dangerous when it creeps into negotiations.

The podcast calls out a common pattern:

• Buyer comes in $10,000 under list

• The seller feels insulted and angry instead of seeing it as a starting point

• Everything that follows becomes personal: every counter, every repair request, every deadline

When emotions take over, logic exits. Sellers either:

• Refuse to counter at all (just to “punish” the low offer), or

• React in ways that make the deal much harder to hold together

The healthier approach is simple: treat the whole thing like a business transaction.

A low offer? Counter at a number you believe is fair.

An aggressive repair ask? Push back where needed, or offer money instead of work.

The moment every email and addendum feels like a personal attack, it’s a sign the process has become about feelings instead of outcomes. And feelings don’t cut a check at closing.

6. Overpersonalizing the Space

There’s a funny flip in homeownership:

• When you move in, your job is to personalize.

• When you move out, your job is to depersonalize.

A lot of sellers get stuck in step one.

Buyers walking through don’t need to see:

• Walls full of family portraits

• Rooms themed around very specific hobbies

• Décor that screams one person’s personality instead of “anyone could live here.”

It isn’t that those things are bad. They’re just distracting. Instead of looking at the size of the living room or the condition of the kitchen, buyers end up trying to decode the seller’s life story.

The podcast recommends stripping down as much personal imprint as possible:

• Take down family photos

• Neutralize rooms that are heavily themed

• Let the house, not the hobbies, be the star

Staging still matters—empty rooms rarely show their best—but the goal is broad appeal, not self-expression.

7. Treating Neighbors and Friends as Pricing Experts

Last but not least: well-meaning but unqualified advice.

Almost every agent has heard some version of:

• “Janet across the street said our house is worth ___.”

• “Jim Bob told us his buddy sold for sale by owner in two days and made a killing.”

Sometimes neighbors do have useful tidbits—like what a house actually closed for or how long it sat. But they’re usually sharing opinions, not data. And those opinions often come from one anecdote, half-remembered numbers, or secondhand stories.

The podcast isn’t saying ignore neighbors entirely. The better move is:

• Ask for specifics if they’re going to share (“Do you know the actual sale price?”)

• Hand that info to someone who does real estate full-time and let them interpret it

There’s a big difference between “here’s a data point” and “here’s my conclusion based on my cousin’s friend’s sale last year.”

One telling story from the show: a neighbor once came into an open house specifically to ask what her friend’s house might be worth. She brought the seller back, the agent gave a professional opinion, listed the home, and sold it for full price—more than the owner expected.

The key wasn’t the neighbor’s interpretation. It was that she pulled a professional into the conversation instead of trying to play one.

Watch Or Listen To The Selling Greenville Podcast

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Bottom Line

The seven biggest mistakes home sellers make aren’t mysterious. They’re predictable: bad pricing, weak presentation, the wrong advisor, emotional decision-making, and trusting stories more than stats.

Sellers who side-step those traps—and partner with someone willing to use data, invest in good photos, and tell them the truth instead of what they want to hear—are the ones who usually walk away from closing with the kind of check that makes the whole process feel worth it.

Ien Araneta

Journal & Podcast Editor | Selling Greenville