The Real Estate Mistake Unsellable Houses' Lyndsay Lamb Warns Sellers To Avoid

Successfully listing and selling your home is both an art and a science. Home selling requires scientific precision in filling out all the required listing agreements, negotiating pricing and commission splits with your real estate agent, and managing complex financial transactions. But, this undertaking is also an art in the sense that homeowners must decide which upgrades to undertake as they attempt to use design trends to increase home value. Like any skill, successfully selling a home can be learned and made easier by following advice from the pros. If any individuals have mastered this skill — it's Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis. As the stars of HGTV's "Unsellable Houses" — the charismatic sister-sister duo know exactly how to turn houses into homes that are anything but unsellable. 

Thankfully, you don't have to land a guest spot on their HGTV series to follow their advice and set yourself up for selling success. If there's one piece of advice from Lyndsay Lamb that sellers should heed if they want to sell their homes quickly, it's understanding the importance of a well-crafted online listing. "A common mistake is just believing that all they need to do is list it and it'll sell," said the HGTV star in an interview with Realtor.com. "... You have to do something special and different and present it in a great way for a buyer to come along and make that offer." We'll break down Lamb's advice and give you everything you need to create a listing that sells.

No matter how hot your neighborhood is or how appealing your home is, HGTV's Lyndsay Lamb is right — hitting the "list" button isn't enough, and your home likely won't sell unless it's presented well. The secret to successful home selling lies in knowing how to make your home attractive to buyers, but if your online presentation is lacking and buyers can't see how attractive your home truly is, it can't capture their attention. A 2021 study found that 97% of all homebuyers use the internet to find homes (via The National Association of Realtors). So as important as open houses are, your online listing is of foremost importance, as it's probably the first place buyers will encounter your home.

To follow up on her sister's comments, Leslie Davis drives home the importance of an online listing and says, "Especially in today's day and age, everybody is making their decision online and often on their phone, which is this tiny little screen to make a decision with, in a split second," via an interview with The List. "And if you don't get that consumer, get that buyer interested in your property in those first 20 seconds, they're going to move on to the next property. So you have a very short amount of time to get them interested." While there are many crucial elements to an online home listing, the most important aspects are undoubtedly attractive professional photography and an accurate, well-written, detailed listing description.

If you're hoping to sell your home faster and for a premium profit, your goal should be to make a stellar first impression that leaves buyers begging to see more. Since photos of your home are the first things buyers see when scrolling through listings, professional photos are vital for stopping the buyer mid-scroll and getting them to click on your listing. Homes that utilize professional photography captured using a high-performance DSLR camera tend to sell faster and for more money than similar homes that don't. Other ways to improve your listing's attractiveness include aerial photography using drones or a video home tour, both used by Lyndsay Lamb's company, Lamb & Co. to market listings. 

Thankfully, in most cases, your real estate agent will pay for professional photos. So, when shopping around for realtors, it's wise to ensure that the one you select will extend you this courtesy, and can show you examples of professional photography from past listings and statistics about their former sales. If budgetary constraints restrict you from staging your home, you can also request virtual staging. Finally, a robust listing description will consist of creative and captivating headlines, compelling and complete descriptions, just enough sales buzzwords, and honest insights that buyers will find helpful about the home and surrounding area. In most cases, real estate agents take care of this too. But, to ensure success, look at your potential realtor's past listing descriptions and ensure they're written not just to merely describe, but with marketing in mind.