If you really want to sell a house, it this challenging market, you need to think and act like a salesperson, and separate your emotional attachement to your family home form your financial interest in your family’s largest asset. Selling a house is business and you must approach the sale in a business like manner.
No.1 Do Not wait around!
Don’t try to hang on the sidelines in hope that prices and chances to sell will improve, that will not get your house sold! The best way is to put it up for sale! Obviously you should take advantage of your local market cycles, early spring is usually better for selling in much of the country, but otherwise don’t try timing the market.
No.2 Fix it up and Clean it up!
Just imagine that the buyers are taking your house out on a date, it has to make the best impression. You do not need to spend a lot of money, no big renovations are needed, but do see that everything is in good repair. And give the place a new paint job and a general sprucing up. Decluttering the place is another biggy, no buyers wants to see a house filled with others peoples stuffs, they want to imagine their own stuffs in the house, so just stage the house with minimal furniture.
No.3 Price it Cheaply
Don’t try to fetch a price that might have been possible to fetch last year or the three years ago, it is not what it is worth today, so set a realistic salable price, where you will be able to get that monkey of your back and move on with your life. Smart buyers will be looking for bargains, that is why if you want to move your house, price it lower than comparables nearby properties. Furthermore in much of the country renting is still a better deal right now than buying, and as you try to settle on a price, look at rents on comparable properties, buyers are not likely to be counting on huge price appreciation, as they did during the bubble, so they may be less willing to take on the higher monthly costs of home buying and owning. You must set a price that makes someone’s propective mortgage and home-owning costs look like a better deal than a month’s rent.
No.4 Hire a Top Real Estate Agent
Get the most aggressive selling agent you can find, Check me out at http://www.sunnyyates.com (it is one of the most powerful website for the Charlotte real estate market!). When everything was selling before it even hit the market, of course you did not need the best. You just needed the cheapest. But these days, you have to get the full service real estate agent that will deliver the most effective and out of the box marketing plan!
No.5 Promote, Promote, Promote
Yes, your real estate agent will do and pay for most of the heavy promotion, but you can do your shares as well, talk about your home to all your neighbors and friends, put it on the church bulleting list, talk to your HR department if you have one within your company, just get creative and work with your real estate agent.
No.6 Play the banker
An alternative could be offering creative financing, if you are in a position to do so, i.e. lease to own or financing assistance with the down payment. But make sure you do get a real estate lawyer to draft all your contracts, so that your interests will be fully protected. And worst case scenario, your borrower defaults and you take the property back. And sell it again.
No.7 Take the offer
If any qualified buyer comes in with a reasonable offer, be prepared to accept it. You don’t want to lose the deal by beckering over a few dollars. Negotiate of course, but recognize that the buyer has a lot more clout than you do. Your house is wonderful as you thing it is, but it is worth only as much as someone is willing to pay for it. And that unfortunately will probably be a lot less than you think.
This was a snap shot of an article that I read from the Wall Street Journal written by David Crook.
Hope that you got some interesting tips and thoughts about selling a home in this challenging market.
Contact or visit my site at http://www.sunnyyates.com if you are ever in the Charlotte North carolina area looking to sell or buy a house!
