How to Sell Your Home in a Down Market

The money is made when you buy, not when you sell. I helped one of my clients buy a house in Clearwater, Florida, so below market that even when she decided to sell it recently, even with the market so depressed that she got $70,000 less than appraised value, she still recovered all of her down payment, all of the payments she had been making to the bank over a period of 9 months, plus utilities and costs and still made a modest profit.

The money is made when you buy because if you get the right deal, then even if the market shifts you still come ahead. Notice that I use the word “deal” not the word “price”. Price is actually one of the four elements in a transaction. First is considering what you are buying, or the “product”, is it what you really want? Then there is the cost or price, then come terms, how is the price going to be paid and finally comes form of payment, is this going to be cash? a note? When things get tougher we tend to use “price” as our only weapon instead of improving the product, providing better terms and/or accepting other ways for payment.

The beauty about Home Ownership, whether you are looking at selling or buying is that YOU have control over these four elements: product (home), price (asking price), terms (bank or owner financing) and form of payment (note from  bank, cash, carrying a note, etc…) I have mentioned just a few here but Real Estate is the MOST creative field in business because YOU can control ALL the aspects of the transaction.

Most of us read the paper or listened to other people and we get stuck on “price”, the market is “down” the market is “up”, times are “hard” etc… all these conclusions are based solely on the behavior of that just one variable, price. I am not saying that price is not an important element, all I am saying is that there are another 3 that can make up for the lack of it.

If you are planning on buying or selling your home you ought to take a look at the combination of what you are offering, asking price, terms and method of payment.