How to Sell Your Home in a Slow Market

Asking Price is actually one of the four elements in any transaction. First is considering what you are selling, or the “product”, here we are talking about Real Estate, so this would be what kind/type of home you are selling. Then there is the asking price, then come terms, 30 years? 40 years? 15 years and then a balloon payment, 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 form of payment.

The beauty about Real Estate, 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.

Homes are sitting in the market a lot longer. A year ago the average was less than a week, today there are a lot of homes listed on February or March that are still in the market as of the writing of this article.

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 need to sell your home and can’t afford to continue to wait or don’t want to start on the waiting game, it is time to become creative. Lowering the asking price is just ONE of the MANY things you can do. It is possible that in the final analysis you might have to lower your asking price, but why not try ALL the other avenues first?

For example, have you looked at your MLS (Multiple Listing Service –the way Realtors find properties for their clients) listing? If not ask your listing agent to show it to you. Is ALL the information there?  Easy to read? No abbreviations? Do you have a LOT of pictures of your property professionally taken? On the Remarks field of your MLS Listing did your listing agent write a detailed and complete description of all the best features of your property? Or is your listing agent telling you that he on purpose is putting little information to create “curiosity” so that people would call him? On top of that, does your listing agent have a marketing plan he is following? Or is he hoping that someone will stumble upon your listing? Are you using the other three elements of the transaction creatively to motivate the potential buyers that do show up? What about having the financing already in place for the BUYER? (we do that too)

Like any sale, there is a lot of hustling involved. Selling a home has its own particular system, method and time-tested way. If you need help selling your home write to the e-mail below for a free and no obligation consultation