Is your For Sale sign faded? Are there spider webs entwined in your screen door? Maybe it’s time to change your tactics on selling your home. Here’s a few ideas that may help.
*You’re asking too much for it. Overpricing your home is the most common mistake. If you’re selling your home in a down market where there are a lot of foreclosures, you may have to come down in your price. Even if you do find a buyer for the price you are asking, the property may not appraise at that price and the financing won’t go through. In a lot of areas, foreclosures have brought down prices of houses. You can’t out price a bank but you can undercut comparable houses in your area. If you’re more flexible in your price then you may get more action then the home owners that aren’t as flexible .
*Your house doesn’t have curb appeal. Get out the power washer and go to work, paint the trim and the doors, trim the bushes and tidy up the flower beds. Step back to the curb, give it a once over and see if there is anything that jars the sensibilities. Fix any big problems inside. Carpet stained? If it won’t come clean with a scrubber you may want to invest in new carpeting. Linoleum scuffed up and marked? Either remove the marks or replace the linoleum. Walls nicked up? Repaint in a neutral color that blends nicely. Anything that would turn a buyer off should be replaced. If you notice it, big or small, so will the potential buyer.
*You are in a bad location. Location, location, location..there is truth in that saying. There isn’t much you can do if you are in a bad location. If it’s the neighbor’s messy house and yard or traffic that’s the problem, then you can use bushes or fencing to screen it out or muffle the noise. You can also reduce your asking price or offer seller refinancing. You can also offer a “rent to own” option.
*Your real estate agent isn‘t doing their job. A bad agent can overprice your home, not market it properly, or fail to screen potential buyers. If the agent is difficult to work with, other agents won’t want to share listings. A good agent will have your listing on their laptops, in color. They’ll communicate frequently through phone calls or email. They will have open houses, fliers and placement in the local real estate publications. If your listing is about to expire, evaluate your agent’s performance. An agent is worth keeping if they have good suggestions to improve your situation, knows you and knows your property. An agent who is ineffective is not someone you want to keep.
*Take your house off the market. People are aware if it’s been on the market a long time and agents will stop showing it. If your home remains on the market too long, then agents and buyers may start to wonder if there are more serious reasons why it isn’t selling.
Selling your home in these times isn’t always easy. Hopefully some of these tips will prove useful for you. The fact is that buyers, not sellers, ultimately determine the market value of your home. You can ask for whatever you think but at some point it will be up to you to accept what your prospective buyer thinks it’s worth.
By Linda Lee Ruzicka
Linda Lee Ruzicka lives in the mountains of Western PA , happily married and with her 8 cats and three dogs. She has been published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Writing Village, June Cotner anthology, The Grit, Reminisce , the book, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family. She also does freelances work for Beyond and Realestatejobsite. You can read more of her blogs on Realestatejobsite blog.
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