HGTV’s FrontDoor.com identified what it believes to be the top 10 home-selling mistakes, presented in a David Letterman-style list and emailed in a news release. If you’re selling a home, or plan to soon, take a look at the gaffes below to make sure you’re not guilty of one:

10. WAITING UNTIL SPRING TO SELL. People buy homes all year, so play up the home’s seasonal amenities and take advantage of serious buyers looking in the off-season.

9. NOT UNDERSTANDING THE REAL ESTATE CONTRACT. Go over the fine print of the agreement with your real-estate agent or attorney before signing to make sure you understand your responsibilities as well as any demands the buyer has made.

8. GOING IT ALONE WITHOUT RESEARCHING FIRST. Selling a home for-sale- by-owner take time, and requires you to do paperwork, marketing and showings.
Make sure
you’re up for the work involved in return for saving on the real- estate agent commission fee.

7. IGNORING LOWBALL OFFERS. If buyers submit a low offer, don’t reject it completely. Counteroffer to see if they are willing to negotiate.

6. WASTING TIME ON AN UNQUALIFIED BUYER. Make sure a potential buyer is prequalified for a loan before accepting an offer.

5. SKIMPING ON MARKETING. Mix traditional advertising, including a sign in the yard and an ad in a homes magazine, with Web techniques, including online photos and video.

4. SABOTAGING THE SHOWING. Leave the home when it is being shown to prospective buyers so they can more easily focus, and make sure the home is accessible with convenient showing hours and a lockbox for agents.

3. NOT PREPPING FOR THE SALE. Visit open houses in the neighborhood to get a sense of what the competition offers, then make fixes and updates, declutter and clean to outshine them.

2. OVERIMPROVING. Don’t make so many upgrades that you price your home out of the appropriate range for the area and fail to recoup your investment.

1. OVERPRICING. Your home should be priced in line with homes in the area that are of similar age, style and size.

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Cheryl Smith of Lakeland, FL. just won the $2 million grand prize in this year’s HGTV Dream Home Giveaway, including a Victorian-style farmhouse in Sonoma, Calif., and a 2009 GMC® Acadia Crossover.

The family who says “we live on no man’s land” is the HGTV Dream Home Winner 2009.

The $2 million dollar HGTV Dream HOme Winner 2009 prize goes to Chery Smith of Lakeland in Florida. The family also wins a brand new GMC Arcadia.

The 2008 HGTV Dream Home winner had been given a tropical paradise. It was on January 2nd of 2008 that HGTV had announced the 2009 Dream Home sweepstakes. “It’s your chance now to win the 2009 HGTV Dream Home. The beautiful house is located in Sonoma, California, and comes with a new 2009 GMC Acadia. The HGTV Dream Home 2009 grand prize package is worth more than $2 million dollars,” anounced HGTV at the time.

It’s not only the prize and the car but also a house. Here is HGTV on its own words about what the 2009 HGTV Dream Home Winner gets. “Cheryl Smith just won the $2 million grand prize in this year’s HGTV Dream Home Giveaway, including a Victorian-style farmhouse in Sonoma, Calif., and a 2009 GMC® Acadia Crossover.”

“I’m glad I at least had my shirt on,” the retired electrical engineer for Ford Motor Co. laughed on Sunday night, minutes after the network unmasked him and his wife Cheryl as winners of the 2009 HGTV Dream Home Giveaway.

“Neither of the winners had shoes on and Cheryl, who was finishing up the dinner dishes, lamented she didn’t have a moment to put on make-up before the ambush,” writes Pressdemocrat.com. However, millions of people are happy to share those great moments with the winners of the 2009 HGTV Dream Home show. Hope their children and grandchildren about whom Cheryl Smith mentioned in the impromptu announcement interview will visit them more.

For more info and to see more pics and video of the Sonoma dream home, check out:
http://www.hgtv.com/dream-home/index.html

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