It’s no secret that the market is overcrowded with under priced homes. Almost every area has comparable homes for sale with similar design, square footage and features. If you want to sell, how can you make your home sell before all of the others? You have to carefully plan and execute every aspect of your sale.
Here are 8 tips to help you sell your home in a buyers market:
1. Find the right agent. If your market is saturated and there is one agent selling more than another, it may be that the agent selling more houses has more knowledge about properly marketing, listing and selling homes. If you are in the market to sell, check out some open houses being held by realtors in your area and check them out as a seller’s agent. If you like their style, perhaps you should choose them to list your home.
2. Understand your competition. If the house for sale down the block comes with a new refrigerator or gas grill or even a 3% credit for new carpet and you aren’t offering any deals, the house down the street may have a sold sign before yours.
3. Offer A Warranty. For a few hundred dollars you can purchase a home warranty against defects with the home and appliances you are selling with the home. This gives the buyer piece of mind that they are covered should anything happen for the first few years after they purchase the home.
4. Offer a unique Extra. Buyers are working to sweeten the deal by offering new plasma televisions, cars, boats, mowing for the first year and more. Consider if this is something you would like to include in your deal to sweeten the deal and close the sale.
5. Stage Your Home. When you stage your home you work to take your own style out of the home to allow the potential buyers to visualize what they would do with the house.
6. Make your House Stand Out from The Curb. Be sure that you pull weeds, get your home power washed, update your porch lights, plant new colorful flowers, put down some fresh mulch and keep the driveway swept. Walk down your street and then come back to your own home. What is your first impression? If the outside looks overgrown and neglected some people may assume that the inside is in disrepair as well.
7. Make Sure Your Realtor Updates The Pictures of Your Home. You need to make sure that anyone browsing listings online sees the latest pictures of your home. If you listed your home in the fall or winter when the leaves are colored or gone, you need to make sure that you post a new picture in the spring that shows the flowers in bloom, green grass and trees with leaves.
8. Know Your Bottom Dollar. Buyers know that it is a buyers market and they are taking advantage of it. They are offering thousands less than the listing price or requesting that certain pieces of furniture are left behind. Be sure that you remove any pieces from the house that you don’t want to risk being included in a sales deal.