{"id":236012,"date":"2026-05-18T22:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236012\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:44:23","slug":"the-biggest-mistake-home-sellers-make-and-it-costs-them-more-than-2k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236012\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest mistake home sellers make \u2014 and it costs them more than $2K"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home sellers get the shaft when just one real estate agent plays both sides of the deal, according to stunning new Zillow data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The estimated loss per home from sellers in these dual-agency transactions is about $2,165.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that number would be even greater in the Big Apple \u201csimply because of the price point of the real estate,\u201d said broker Jennifer Lenz with Dolly Lenz Real Estate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, the typical loss for sellers in dual-agency transactions across New York state is $4,282, a spokesperson for Zillow told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage each buyer to have their own broker, but many buyers today think they\u2019ll get a better deal using the seller\u2019s broker only,\u201d said New York City broker Barbara Fox with Brown Harris Stevens.\u00a0This just isn\u2019t so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home sellers lose out in dual-agency transactions. Gorodenkoff \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

All told, sellers in these one-agent deals lost a combined $1.49 billion over the past three years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe additional commission earned from pushing a seller\u2019s price up is generally modest, while the potential cost of selling to a different buyer and splitting a commission with another agent is significant,\u201d Zillow\u2019s report says. \u201cThat dynamic can incentivize certain agents to close a deal with a buyer they represent rather than negotiate hard for the maximum sale price.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is greatest in California, with sellers in dual-agency deals losing an estimated $533 million over the study years of 2023, 2024 and 2025. New York sellers lost $146 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot depends on the quality and integrity of the representation,\u201d said Douglas Elliman\u2019s Chris Wands, who is based in Miami. \u201cUnfortunately, not every agent in the industry operates the same way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another costly mistake home sellers can make is listing privately, or off the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That resulted in a $4,230 typical loss per person, or a combined loss of $1.36 billion over three years, with the homes typically going for 1.3% less than sellers who listed publicly.\u00a0In New York state the typical loss for private listings is $13,544, per the Zillow spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has become a huge issue in our New York City marketplace unfortunately,\u201d Fox said. \u201cThe only people that benefit from \u2018private\u2019 listings, where a broker holds a listing within his\/her own firm for a period before offering it to the public and to the remainder of the brokerage companies, are the listing broker and their company \u2014 certainly not the seller.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Home sellers can lose out on healthy competition when they\u2019re not listed publicly. snowing12 \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Sellers in New York state left $135 million on the table when selling privately between 2023 and 2025, the Zillow spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more buyers who have eyes on a property, the better chance you have of creating competition, and competition is usually what drives pricing,\u201d Wands said. \u201cIn the middle market especially, MLS exposure is one of the most important tools sellers can use to maximize visibility and generate demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he cautioned that the data doesn\u2019t always fit at the upper tier. \u201cIn the luxury market, there are situations where privacy, timing, discretion or buyer quality matter more than just maximizing exposure,\u201d Wands said.<\/p>\n

Sellers should aim to get as many eyeballs on a property as possible.\u00a0 Elenathewise \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Some other seller mistakes include:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ignoring your \u201cscreen appeal,\u201d per Zillow\u2019s spokesperson. \u201cMost people start their search online, so screen appeal is the new curb appeal. Make sure your listing stands out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mispricing your home. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a growing gap between homes that sell fast and others that linger \u2014 roughly one in five homes nationwide is selling within a week, but the average home on the market is sitting longer,\u201d the rep said. \u201cGetting your pricing right from the start is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHiring an agent based solely on the highest suggested list price rather than strategy and execution,\u201d Wands said.<\/p>\n

Listing the home at the wrong time. \u201cTiming and understanding current buyer sentiment within a specific market segment also matter much more than many sellers realize,\u201d Wands said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home sellers get the shaft when just one real estate agent plays both sides of the deal, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,10701,9,24,55,54,56,1491,3006,11322,8418],"class_list":["post-236012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-exclusive","tag-home-sales","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-study-says","tag-zillow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}