5 Things To Do If You're Struggling To Sell Your Home
5 Things To Do If You're Struggling To Sell Your Home
There are a thousand issues that contribute to you struggling to sell. Home values rising and rising might have made you price your home inappropriately, some renovations can make your home unappealing, or the market conditions have made buyers back off from specific home types.
Whatever the issue, there are things you can do to attract the potential buyer that will pay top dollar for your house. But before setting expectations sky-high, the first thing you need to do is understand why your current home is not selling.
Price your home correctly.
When there are a lot of competing properties on the housing market, more than there are buyers even, that means you're in a buyer's market. This means that the buyers have the upper hand and even if the pricing of your home is accurate in other situations, being in a buyer's market will inevitably drive prices down.
Prospective buyers will always be on the lookout for home prices that fit their budget or come under. As a seller, obviously, you want the best price possible when selling your home. No one goes through the entire process only to receive less money than what they think they deserve.
How then, do you set a realistic price?
Hire a real estate agent.
An asking price is the first filter you set in place that buyers use to determine whether or not something like going to open houses is worth it. Setting that filter in place can have unintended consequences if you're not familiar with how real estate transactions work.
Hiring a real estate agent will mean that not only will they have contacts with other buyers' agents looking for homes in your area but they will also know the value of comparable homes and help you choose a good price point.
Unagented home sellers tend to set a prohibitive sales price because emotions tend to get in the way. It's not easy to decide what your home should cost, not everyone has access to the wealth of information that real estate agents have.
As a seller, you might expect to lose out on the deal because of the added closing costs due to hiring a real estate agent but the truth is that an agent can help reel in many buyers that you would not have been able to get in touch with yourself. As those buyers compete with one another, that means extra cash for you - more than enough to offset the cost of hiring an agent.
Before you stick your home online with a list price you cobbled together based on the price of another property like yours but two cities away, contact a real estate agent.
Real estate agents can also employ the right marketing strategy for your house. Realtors have a huge reach through their social media accounts which helps them find the right people for either a one-bedroom condo in the heart of the city or a three-bedroom home in the suburbs.
Make necessary repairs and updates.
While some buyers will overlook some key issues, most buyers will be taking a close look at some key features of the house.
Before they even walk in the door, potential buyers will take in the home's curb appeal consciously or subconsciously. Listing photos are great but nothing changes someone's opinion as quickly as an unkempt dried-up front lawn does. Repaint the front door, add some plants around the rocking chair you never use, put a couple of coasters on the little table on the porch; make it feel like the house they are about to walk in is one that has been well-loved and given more than it has taken over time.
When getting ready for a home sale, it's not just enough to declutter the property and clean a little inside. The future owners want to know that they can move in and live in the home for a while before needing to think about repairs to the property.
Most buyers will have the home inspected thoroughly and could use the issues they uncovered to create pressure points to use during a negotiation.
If you're more interested in selling fast than selling for more money then that's not an issue. However, if you want to make the most out of the sale then taking some time to do repairs can help you drive the price higher up and attract more buyers - hopefully triggering a bidding war.
Make better use of your square footage.
No one wants to put a down payment on a cramped house.
Even if you have a lot of space, insisting on keeping big items of furniture can make events like private showings and open houses an exercise in human traffic jams.
There's a reason home sales tips always emphasize decluttering but if you followed the advice and still find it hard to navigate then it's time to take the next step.
Your first option is to rent a storage unit big enough to fit some of your furniture and store the bigger, clunkier items there until you sell.
Another option is to just start selling some of the furniture, unless you plan on bringing it with you to your next home, you might as well get this step out of the way. Leaving a decent amount of furniture behind can be very attractive for prospective buyers, but the truth is that while some furniture included in the sale is great, too much furniture can feel like the sellers are just offloading their problems onto the buyer.
Offer to pay the buyer's closing costs.
Closing costs can add up to a pretty sum but it doesn't compare to the amount you will make when you sell your home.
If you're waiting on the sale of the home for another transaction then speeding things along by offering to pay for some of the extra costs usually expected to fall on the buyer can get your home off the market swiftly.
As opposed to lowering the asking price upfront, you can use this tactic if you feel like the property is on the verge of slipping back fully into your hands.
A condition-less cash offer is the dream but you're here because the home is struggling to sell, not the opposite. In real estate, negotiating can go a very long way. For example, you could even offer to pay for the home inspection yourself.
That the seller chose to entice the buyer can make the difference between the buyer passing on a sale and a collective round of champagne popping.
The most important thing to keep in mind.
If you expect your home to stay on the market for a while, you should talk to your agent about the best course of action. And if the home is taking a while to sell and you don't have an agent, then it's past time to get one.
There is always the option to relist the home after making some changes but the ethics of that can be a little complicated and left to individual agents.
Selling a home is not just about square footage or market conditions, there's a lot to the process that involves having a salesman's mindset. Putting your house on sale is a difficult, emotional event, it's okay to not have all the answers.
Having someone on your side who knows most of these coveted answers though, that's the best you can make if you're struggling to sell your home.
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