Simple Suggestions for Sellers
Are you currently trying to sell your home in today’s real estate market? Does anyone remember how easy it was to sell your home 5 years ago? There were so many buyers out there that you were choosing what offer you were going to accept before your ad showed up in the paper. There were so many people competing for a new home that you, the seller, had no competition. Don’t we all miss those days?
If you’re selling your home today, we’re guessing you aren’t experiencing quite the same simplicity. You have to compete with both retail sellers and bank foreclosures. Because it’s such a buyers market, it frequently takes more than just the price to sell a house. Here are just a couple ideas to give you a leg up when selling your home.
Set yourself apart.
In any competitive sales environment, real estate or otherwise, your product needs to stand out. The product is, of course, your house. Ask yourself what every buyer is asking themselves; “Why should I buy this house instead of the other ten I looked at last week?” If you can’t answer that question, then the potential buyer probably can’t answer that question either.
Make it easy on the buyer.
Have you ever bought a used car? What was the first thing you did? You asked and looked for what was wrong with the car. When someone walks into your home, they do the exact same thing. They look for things that need to be repaired, replaced, or otherwise changed. You can make it much easier on a potential buyer by making your home ready and appealing to move into. This means taking care of all the little repairs like painting scuffed walls, cleaning or replacing carpet, fixing a few kitchen cabinets, or putting in a new ceiling fan. We know you may be thinking that none of these little fixer uppers add any value which is true in the sense you’re thinking. But if we redefine value as improving your home’s move in condition to help sell your home faster, then you’ve added value!
Encourage the sale.
And this one ties back in with setting yourself apart. There are many sellers today doing this. They are paying for closing costs or for all the inspections. Those are great! What about setting yourself apart in your incentives by giving someone your time share for a week? What about a gift certificate to Ikea or even the grocery? It’s often times the little things that make the biggest difference.
Hopefully this information causes you sellers to think a little out of the box. Our hope is that these tips will make the sale of your home a little easier on you. If there’s anything we can do to help like referring you to a Realtor that we partner with, please let us know. You can respond to this blog or contact us directly.
