Ed Neuhaus 
A few months ago I got a call from someone who had been trying to sell their home in Bee Cave for about four months. The listing had gone stale — too many days on market, a small price reduction that hadn’t moved the needle, and a seller who was frustrated and confused. I walked through the home, pulled the comps, and within about twenty minutes I had identified three separate mistakes that had collectively torpedoed the sale.
The home was perfectly nice. The problem wasn’t the house.
In 16 years of selling homes in Austin, I’ve watched the same mistakes show up again and again. Different houses, different neighborhoods, different price points — but the same patterns. The good news is that every single one of these is avoidable. The better news is that most of them are avoidable before you ever hit the market.
So lets go through them. All 10.
1. Overpricing (By Far the Most Expensive Mistake)
I’ll spend more time here than anywhere else, because this one single mistake causes more failed sales, more price reductions, and more money left on the table than all the other nine combined.
The Austin market in 2026 is not forgiving of overpriced homes. We’re sitting at about 89 average days on market across the metro — the highest since March 2011 — with roughly 12,800 active listings and an absorption rate around 23%. In a healthy market, that number should be above 40%. What this means practically: buyers have options, and they know it.
When you overprice, you don’t just attract fewer offers. You train every buyer who walks through your door to wonder what’s wrong with the place. The psychology shift is real. In 2021, buyers asked “Can I get this before someone else does?” In 2026, they’re asking “Why hasn’t anyone bought this yet?” Those are very different questions, and your price is what triggers the second one.
The fix is getting your pricing right from day one. I wrote an entire piece on this — Austin Home Seller Pricing Strategy 2026 — but the short version is: use sold comps from the last 90 days, not active listings, and not data from 2022. Those numbers will send you off a cliff.
Also worth reading: this real example from Bee Cave of what overpricing looks like in practice.
2. Skipping the Pre-Listing Inspection
This one surprises people when I bring it up. “Why would I pay for an inspection before I even have a buyer?”
Because buyers are going to inspect it anyway, and you do not want to be sitting at a negotiating table finding out for the first time that your HVAC is 18 years old, or there’s a moisture issue under the house, or the electrical panel is flagged. Those discoveries mid-contract — after a buyer is emotionally invested and a closing date is set — are where deals die or where sellers lose ,000 in last-minute repair credits.
A pre-listing inspection gives you options. You can fix what you want to fix, disclose what you’re not fixing, and price accordingly. It removes the element of surprise that tanks contracts. The data on pre-listing inspections makes a pretty compelling case. Here’s what to expect if you go that route.
Think of it as paying – to find out what your buyer’s inspector is going to find anyway. The difference is you get to hear that news privately, not in a repair addendum three days before closing.
3. Bad Photos (Or No Photos)
I know this sounds obvious. And yet.
Listings with professional photos sell 32% faster and generate 118% more online views than listings with standard images. 84% of buyers will dismiss a listing if the photos don’t hold their attention. In a market where your home might sit on Zillow next to 50 other listings at a similar price, your first photo is the whole pitch. You’ve got about three seconds.
Bad photos are usually one of three things: dark (blinds closed, no lights on), cluttered (too much furniture, personal items everywhere), or shot with a phone at a bad angle. All three send one message: the seller didn’t care enough to try. And if the seller didn’t try, what does the house look like in person?
Professional real estate photography runs – for most homes. In any market, that’s a no-brainer. In this market, it’s the minimum. Video walkthroughs and aerial shots have become common in the K+ range, and for good reason — 90% of buyers are more likely to view a property that includes a virtual tour.
4. Not Disclosing Issues
This one is worth being direct about.
In Texas, the Seller’s Disclosure Notice isn’t optional. Foundation issues, past flooding, plumbing problems, neighbor disputes — these all have to be disclosed, and the forms cover a lot of ground. Sellers who try to hide problems and get caught aren’t just losing the deal. They’re exposing themselves to lawsuits after closing.
The irony is that disclosure rarely kills a sale when handled well. Buyers expect imperfect houses — they’re buying a used house. What they don’t expect is finding out at the inspection or, worse, after they move in, that you knew about a problem and said nothing. That’s where things get ugly.
Be upfront. Price accordingly. Let buyers make informed decisions. That’s both the legal requirement and, honestly, the right way to do business. The 2026 Texas real estate law changes also updated some of the disclosure and contract requirements worth knowing before you list.
5. Choosing the Agent Purely on Commission
I get it. You’re about to write a big check at closing and you want to minimize it. That’s completely rational.
But here’s the thing: the cheapest agent almost never gets you the best outcome. A well-negotiated transaction — better price, fewer repair credits, favorable terms — is worth far more than saving half a point on commission. An agent who regularly closes deals at 97-98% of list price versus one who lands at 92-93% is a bigger financial difference than any commission spread you’ll find.
The question to ask every agent isn’t “what’s your commission?” It’s “what’s your average list-to-sale ratio?” And then “how many homes have you sold in this neighborhood in the last 12 months?” Marketing plans, negotiation history, local market knowledge — those are the variables that actually determine what you walk away with. I’ve written more on what to look for when choosing between a team and a solo agent if you want to go deeper on this.
6. Ignoring Curb Appeal
Buyers make a decision about your house before they get out of the car. Not metaphorically — literally. The 30 seconds between pulling up to the address and walking through the front door sets an emotional baseline that every room they see afterward is measured against.
Walk across the street and look at your own house. Then look at it again like you’ve never seen it before. Dead plants in the beds, a peeling front door, an overgrown tree blocking the main window, pressure-washing that hasn’t happened in two years — these are all fixable and all cost real money in the form of lower offers or buyers who don’t come inside at all.
For virtual showings (which account for more and more of how buyers evaluate homes before scheduling), the curb appeal standards are the same. Your first exterior photo is online, and buyers are already forming an opinion. Most curb appeal improvements cost a few hundred dollars: fresh mulch, a new front door color, trimmed hedges, exterior lighting. The ROI on those small things is real.
7. Being Inflexible on Showings
Every restriction you put on showings costs you buyers.
Two-hour notice required? Some buyers won’t wait. Weekends only? You’ve cut out half the week. No showings during school pickup? Fine, but know what that means. In a market where buyers have 12,800 other homes to consider and days on market are already high, friction in the showing process is a gift to the competition.
I understand this is hard, especially if you’re still living in the home. Having your house show-ready every morning for 60+ days is genuinely inconvenient. But the sellers who make their homes easy to see get seen more. More showings, more chances for an offer. It’s arithmetic.
If you’re in a situation where you need to sell while still occupying the home, having a clear plan for the selling timeline helps a lot. The inconvenience is temporary. Sitting on a stale listing for six months because you couldn’t accommodate Tuesday showings is a much bigger problem.
8. Emotional Pricing
This one is closely related to overpricing, but it’s worth separating because the cause is different.
Overpricing is usually a bad comp. Emotional pricing is when sellers set a number based on what they need, what they paid, what their neighbor got in 2022, or what the house “should” be worth given all the work they put into it. None of those things matter to a buyer. Buyers don’t care what you paid or what you need to net. They care what similar homes are selling for right now, today, in this market.
The kitchen renovation you did in 2021 might have cost $80,000. In this market, buyers might value it at $25,000. That’s painful, but it’s reality. The same is true for additions, pools, and custom work that fits your specific taste but not necessarily the general buyer pool. When sellers price from the inside out (their needs, their history, their emotional attachment) instead of from the market out (current comps, current competition, current buyer behavior), they almost always overprice, and they usually do it by a significant margin.
The honest guide to Austin seller pricing in 2026 covers this in real detail if you want to understand the mechanics behind it.
9. Wrong Timing
Timing matters, and not always in the ways people think.
The conventional wisdom is: list in spring, when buyers are most active. That’s broadly true. In Austin, March through June is historically the strongest selling season. But “wrong timing” covers a lot more than just month of year. It includes listing before you’ve completed reasonable preparations (rushing to market before the paint is dry and the photos are done). It includes pulling your home off the market and relisting with the same price, which resets days on market artificially but doesn’t fool anyone — buyers and agents can see listing history. And it includes waiting indefinitely for “the right moment,” which in a market like this one often just means watching inventory pile up around you.
There’s also a micro-timing element: listings that go live on a Thursday or Friday tend to generate more weekend showing traffic than mid-week launches. Small detail, real effect. If you want the full picture on what this market is doing right now, the Austin Housing Market Forecast 2026-2027 is worth reading before you decide when to list.
10. Not Understanding Your Closing Costs
This one catches more sellers off-guard than almost anything else. They see their net proceeds estimate and it’s… not what they expected.
In Texas, sellers typically pay 8-10% of the sale price between agent commissions, title costs, escrow fees, and closing costs — and that’s before you factor in concessions. Right now, in Austin’s buyer’s market, sellers are routinely contributing $5,000 to $15,000 toward buyer closing costs on top of everything else. For a $600,000 home, you’re looking at $48,000-$60,000 coming off the top before you see a dime.
There’s a full breakdown at The Hidden Costs of Selling a Home — worth reading before you set a selling price, not after. The mistake isn’t paying these costs, it’s being surprised by them mid-transaction and then making reactive decisions (rejecting reasonable offers because the net isn’t what you assumed, refusing concessions that are standard right now) that cost you more in the end.
Run the real math upfront. Know what you’ll net at various price points. Make a decision you can actually live with.
The Common Thread
Look at that list and you’ll notice something. Every one of these mistakes is either a preparation failure (skipping the inspection, bad photos, ignoring curb appeal) or a knowledge failure (not understanding pricing, not knowing closing costs, not knowing how to choose an agent). None of them are inevitable. They’re all just… skipped steps.
The sellers who avoid these mistakes usually have one thing in common: they treated the sale like a business decision from the beginning, not an emotional event. They got the right data, did the preparation, priced correctly, and put a plan together before the sign went in the yard. The sellers who make these mistakes usually had bad information, unrealistic expectations, or they were moving too fast to think clearly.
If you’ve made one of these mistakes and you’re already on the market, the situation is usually fixable. Why Your Home Didn’t Sell the First Time is a good place to start.
If you’re not on the market yet, you’re in the best position possible. All of this is avoidable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Avoid These Mistakes. Work With Someone Who Has Seen Them All.
At Neuhaus Realty Group, we’ve been selling homes in Austin and the Hill Country for 16 years. I’ve personally seen every one of these mistakes — in some cases, I’ve been brought in to fix them after another agent made them. If you’re thinking about selling and you want an honest read on where your home stands and what it’s actually worth in this market, reach out to me directly. No pitch, just data.
And if you’re just doing research right now, that’s fine too. Browse homes in Austin, Bee Cave, Lakeway, or Westlake to get a feel for what the competition looks like. Understanding what buyers see when they browse is one of the most useful things a seller can do before they list.
