5 tips to help your home sell quickly-By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate
To many buyers, a house that's been on the market a long time must have hidden problems. And that could lead to unnecessary and endless price reductions. Luckily, even in a distressed market, there are ways to prevent roots from sprouting under the 'for sale' sign.
Leave it to the pros
Welcome to the wacky world of home sales, where a little stubborn behavior can be costly. But there's a tried-and-true solution that can be summed up with two basic points:
- Find a seller's agent whom you like and trust.
- "Make sure you interview three great agents that focus on your area," says Alan Mark, president of the Mark Co., a real-estate marketing and consulting company in San Francisco. "Then realize that you're hiring a professional who knows how to do this."
- Listen to that agent. More on that below, but the key is to separate the emotional qualities of your home from the basic functional qualities of the house.
It’s never easy to relinquish control, particularly when it’s your home and your money. But if the goal is to sell, and to sell fast, then you’re better off trusting the expert, even if his advice appears trivial — like the paint on a couple of walls — or counterintuitive, such as undercutting the price.
To get a sense of what we mean, see the five tips below, all from experienced agents who say these are areas where home sellers often need some persuading.
1. Price it right; price it low
Some may find Katya Dennis a bit offbeat — or at least bold — in her pricing strategy, which at first blush appears to be undervaluing the property. But Dennis, an agent in Northern California with David Lyng Real Estate, swears by her method.
"I always tell my sellers, you can never price a house too low, because the market will take care of it," she explains.
Dennis recently listed a home for $535,000, even though it had been appraised at $560,000. The house sold within weeks — for $575,000. The reasoning is simple, she says. The low price drew quick and competing bids.
Had she listed the home for $560,000, she's certain the sale would have dragged and brought in even less than the valuation.
"If you start high and start lowering it, you will never get to the number that you will get to by starting low and going up," Dennis says. "Because when you start lowering the price, people will start wondering what's wrong with the house. ... And if it's been sitting awhile, people will try and lowball."
2. Try a fresh sales approachEven on the phone, it's clear that Leis can be tough. But her success stories may provide peace of mind to sellers who find themselves initially put off by agents' edgy tactics.
3. Don’t try too hard to fight the market
Sometimes a seller has to accept that there's only so much an unfriendly marketplace can offer.
4. Remember, renovations aren't a magic bullet
Be flexible with price. "Price is still what's moving." And if you want the house to move, find an agent willing to be brutally honest.
5. Don’t, repeat don’t, skip the online sales push
One last tip from agents: A home that relies on its good personality alone won't cut it in today's market.
"The days when a buyer shows up at my office and says 'Where are we going today?' those days are long over," Romano says. "They show up with a list of homes they've seen online. Some of them, you look at and say, 'Why would you want to look at that?' and you see it looks really good online."
A year earlier, he took a home that had been on and off the market for two years and sold it in 11 days after telling the sellers to follow his rules, which included staging the home and lowering the price.
"The market had continued to decline," Romano says. "Even if a buyer were interested at that (higher) price point, the buyer won't get a mortgage because it won't appraise out for that. It doesn't do anyone any good to list at above the appraised value."
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