Smart Start Selling Tips: How To Sell Your Home In A Buyer's Market

Begin by finding the right realtor. Look for someone with experience and enthusiasm. Discount brokers may look enticing in the beginning, but can lose their luster when your home requires an agent's attention. Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Once your realtor is chosen, order a termite inspection of your property by a licensed inspector. Most agents wait until the home is in escrow. Don't follow that pattern. Knowing the value of any termite repairs before your home hits the market and avoids surprises later. "Honey do" lists-complete them before marketing your home for sale. You know what's broken and it's only a matter of time before a buyer does. Make all minor repairs first. No smoking, please. If you are a smoker, stop smoking in your home immediately. Cigarette smell can cost you a buyer. Open all windows frequently, have rugs and drapes cleaned, and paint all stained walls.

Freshen up the look. A fresh coat of paint does wonders for a home. If you still don't color within the lines, hire a professional. Price it well. What your neighbor's house sold for last summer is not the best indicator of what yours will sell for this summer. Have your agent provide you with reliable sales comparables and adjust for the upgrades, or negatives of your home. Be honest with yourself-the kitchen remodel you did 15 years ago will not bring top dollar in today's market.
Clean, clean, clean. It starts with what the buyer sees from the street and continues to your back fence. Manicured landscaping, a swept driveway and sidewalks, a welcoming front entry and a spotless interior add to the attractiveness of your home. Statistically, buyers choose homes within the first 10 seconds of their visit, so it's worth it to make your home shine.
Always check to see that your front door is clean, especially your front doorknob. It's the first part of the home the buyer touches and you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Clean your windows. If Fido licks the back slider every day, re-clean it before any showings. When your home is being shown, don't play tour guide. Let the buyer and his/ her agent view your home without you. Believe it or not, most buyers feel like they are invading your home when you show them around. Step outside, or take a short walk. Remember, it's the best way to get an offer. Be creative. With hundreds of homes to choose from in this market, buyers and agents are picky. Offering an incentive-gas cards, additional commission, carpet allowances or maybe even a cruise for two can set your home apart and bring you an offer sooner. Be informed. View all the competing homes in your neighborhood and work with your agent to best position your home to sell. Consider pricing, upgrades or incentives to make your home stand out. Be flexible and never get offended. Be open to all offers. Try not to take it personally or get insulted if a buyer offers less than you would like to take for your home. Some low offers can be negotiated up to a number that works for both you and the buyer.

If your home is sitting, consider offering to pay the buyer's closing costs, or a set amount of money that they could use to buy down the interest rate on their loan. You could help them lower their monthly payment, and allow them to buy your house.
Newspaper ads and brochures about how great your agent is won't make a buyer pay more than market value for your home. Understand this, and remember that you are likely to be in the driver's seat when you start shopping for your new home.
Remember, the market has changed. You need to be patient, creative and flexible. The homes with the most upgrades for the lowest prices are the ones that are selling. The real estate market has slowed down in many areas that were booming over the last few years. Sellers in those areas got spoiled. It was only necessary to put a sign out front, and buyers came. Homes sold in a matter of days. This is no longer happening. If you want to sell your home in a slow area, what do you do?

Go Back to Marketing Basics
Whether you are selling your home yourself or working with a realtor, the answer is the same. Go back to marketing basics. We’ll look at things you can do for yourself if you’re selling as a fsbo (for sale by owner). If you’re wording with a realtor, you need to interview to find one who will do the sorts of things we’ll talk about here.
Start with getting your home in first class shape. Then price it realistically.
Begin your marketing by putting up a “for sale” sign. About 10 percent of sales come from this source in a slow market. It’s not like the days when one put up a sign and buyers came in droves, but it is still worth doing. Lowes and Home Depot both sell inexpensive signs. Get one and install it.
Upload your property to one or more Internet multiple listing sites for fsbo properties. Choose one that encourages adding photos to listings. The more photos the better. Buyers love pictures. Make sure the site doesn’t have a bunch of listings that have already been sold. Buyers get put off by sites where every property they call about has already been sold. Find a site that gives your property its own web address.
Don’t forget lead in signs. These are signs indicating there is a house for sale with arrows on them. They can be placed at intersections to point people from a busy street through the turns necessary to get to your home. Lowes and Home Depot have these too. Classified ads in your local newspaper are a good idea. You can include a reference to your online listing. That can give you more mileage from the pictures you uploaded. Brochures are a good idea, too. Put a brochure box out at the front of your property, and keep some indoors for the folks who tour your home. You can probably print an adequate brochure from your Internet listing. If you’re good at it, you can make up your own magazine spread style brochure. Brochures are useful in several ways. They make it easy for the people who just notice the sign or come in following the lead-in signs to learn more about your property. If they like what they see, they are apt to make an appointment to see your home in person. Be sure your brochure contains contact information such as your phone number and perhaps your email address. Brochures for people who tour your property will help them remember it. People shopping for a home usually look at lots of properties. After a while they get confused about what they have seen. Your brochure with photos will help them remember your home. That’s a good thing because people are unlikely to write a contract offer on a home they can’t remember well. Are there bulletin boards at work or your place of worship? Put up a one page flyer or copies of your brochure if you can get permission. After all, the location of your home must be reasonably convenient to those places. What about bulletin boards in the grocery store where you shop, at your dry cleaners, in the drug store you frequent? The point is don’t do just one thing. Use your head. Put out as many marketing ambassadors for your home as you can figure out how to. The truth is people don’t really sell homes. What they do is bring them to the attention of enough people who are shopping for a home that a buyer inevitably emerges. Present your home to enough potential buyers, and it will sell even in a slow market.