Tips for Selling Your Home Quickly in a Slow Housing Market
What does it take to sell a house in today's challenging real estate market? Many people face changing employment or life circumstances which ultimately leave no alternative other than to attempt to sell immediately. Others see opportunity in buying perhaps a larger home at current "undermarket" prices, yet don't want to accept a similar discount for their existing home. Have your cake and eat it too? Nice try; but there ARE things you can do to tip the odds in your favor.
Homesellers today must be prepared to go well beyond "traditional" methods and gimmicks in order to draw potential buyers in the front door and ultimately, to the closing table. By all means; "feng shui" the living room, bury a statue of Saint Joseph on the property, pass out out fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies at the open house. But if you really want to sell the place, you need to put yourself into "salesperson" mode; that is, separate your emotional attachment to your home from your financial interest in what is most likely your family's largest asset. Selling a house is business, and you must approach the sale in a businesslike manner.
If you don't need to sell in the short term, you might want to sit tight. In case this isn't obvious, we are in the midst of the worst home-selling market since Herbert Hoover was president. In much of the country, home prices are already way down and probably heading even further south; houses are sitting on the market for months longer than sellers expected, some areas of the country the average days on market exceeds 6 months. Another option, if you are lucky enough to be able to financially swing it, is to capitalize on finding a great deal on another home, and then instead of selling plan to rent out your existing home, at least until the market recovers to some degree. Beware, though: you'll want to do your homework before you commit to another mortgage; be sure to have your Realtor or other trusted professional evaluate statistics on rental comparables and occupancy in the area, to make sure the numbers make financial sense.
Your chances of selling your home quickly and at a reasonable price will improve if you really commit to making it happen, and follow some basic tips:
- Price your home aggressively. You obviously want to try to get the best sale price you can, but you need to decide how much more important achieving the maximum sale price is than optimizing the timing of your sale. Your Realtor or you should research other homes in the neighborhood that have sold in the previous three months (except for distressed sales/foreclosures) and price your home at or below the lowest sales price. If there are active listings in your neighborhood, the price you select must also be below that of the most comparable home to yours. Set a realistic, salable price from the get go, and smart buyers will notice.
- Market your home aggressively and professionally. Make sure you or your real estate agent have an aggressive plan to market your home and get people looking at it quickly. An effective marketing plan should include listing the home on all the top real estate websites, local newspaper ads, community publications, even "non-traditional" real-estate websites such as craigslist and ebay. The marketing materials should include a good portfolio of professional photographs, a virtual tour, color flyers, listing postcards, and frequent neighborhood open houses (with the fresh baked cookies, of course). You or your agent should follow up with each potential buyer that views the home, if possible, to obtain input and maintain contact in the event a price drop occurs to within the buyers range.
- Stage your home. Consider hiring a professional to “stage” your house before prospective buyers begin coming through your door, especially if your house has been vacant for a while. Staging can run anywhere from $750 to $5,000 - on the higher end if more furnishings are needed. Home furnishings should be arranged so that prospects can more easily envision their own furniture in the house. If you, the seller, feel you have the creative ability and can leave a reasonable amount of nice furnishings to stage the home after you move out, you can save money on hiring a professional. For more information about professional staging, go to the website www.iahsp.com.
- Offer some buyer incentives. Sometimes it is the little things that get a deal over the threshold. Consider offering prospective buyers some extras that make sense and are attractive, but don't cost you too much. Commonly offered items in today's market include seller-funded home warranties, paying for an upgrade or improvement to the property that the buyer desires, or payment of some or all of the buyer's closing costs. Closing cost assistance is especially attractive now that credit has tightened significantly and 100% loans are next to impossible to obtain.
- Offer some "seller" incentives. Who is going to sell your home; a real estate agent, or you? And if you've hired a listing Realtor, are they responsible for selling it, or is the buyer's Realtor really the one you want to dangle the carrot in front of? The answer is, probably both. It's very admirable to sell your home without a Realtor, and certainly do-able; I myself have done it more than once. But if you really need to sell fast, you probably need the exposure and experience that a professional can bring to the table. If you can negotiate with your listing agent to take less commission than is standard, that is great, but make sure your marketing exposure will not suffer; sit down and hash out what services they will provide and do the rest on your own. As far as the buyer's Realtor? You can offer an incentive (on top of the standard commission percentage of the sale price they would receive) consisting of a flat amount of cash, or an additional percentage amount; but make it contingent on a quick sale, for instance, "bonus paid to selling agent for close of escrow by XXX date".
- Ensure that your home has excellent "Curb Appeal". Amazingly, studies have shown that potential buyers decide within the first 8 seconds of driving by your home whether it is worth going to the next step (actually going inside to view). Thus curb appeal deals with the impression that the exterior of the home presents to potential buyers. If a buyer does not get excited looking at the outside of a property, the chances in getting them in the door are very slim. Rather than re-create an obvious list of items that a seller should address prior to putting their home on the market, go to this blog post to get a great list of suggestions.
- Ensure that the inside of your home has "impersonal" appeal. Confused? This means: remove personal items (including family photos and portraits). Prospective buyers want to imagine a house with their own things in it, not yours. If you've utilized a professional stager, no doubt you'll have been provided all the advice you need regarding the inside of the home. If not? Here is another list of items you may want to refer to that are TOTAL turnoffs to avoid at all cost when you are trying to sell a home!
In Summary? Homes that take months to sell often require the asking price to be cut multiple times. Additional costs to the seller include continuing mortgage payments, utilities, taxes and insurance, repairs and other associated costs. Following the tips provided in this article may reduce the amount of time it takes to sell a home in the current down market.
