The Raw Facts – What Really Gets Your Home Sold

So you want to sell your home. Yes, it’s 2011 The housing market has been down for several years. There is a good chance you may owe more on your mortgage than you may be able to sell for. Realtors are jumping out of the business faster than grease jumps out of a hot skillet. The internet has run rampant with different ideas methods and sales pitches.

What is a selling homeowner to do- sell it himself?

Wrong! Yes that’s the wrong answer.

There was a time, “back in the day” oh about 6 years ago. With the right price, selling your well conditioned home would yield multiple offers the first week if not the first day your home was on the market. Often the offers were over asking price. You had to buy another home in order not to be taxed on the profits you were seeing. Realtors couldn’t get offers in fast enough, or high enough. Mortgage reps were using the phrase “Creative Financing” more than my 14 month old daughter says ‘ma-ma’. Sigh… Those were the days.

Yep, those were the days that created the market we have today. Buyers wanting to buy but can’t because lending institutions are too afraid to lend normally credit reliable people enough money to secure the homes they want. Those that do achieve loan approval to purchase find that the appraisal for the home is lower than the amount offered, thus creating an even more difficult situation. And so on and so on.

So what is a seller to do, well yes going FSBO is really a pointless waste of time, most, yes most realtors can’t sell homes now-a-days. I see it everyday when I go to the office, Realtors with good intentions young and old, that just can’t figure out how to work this market. And no Im not talking about deadbeat lowlifes that can’t sell because of laziness or some other ill-fated self inflicted wounds, although there are some of those too. I’m talking Realtors that have sold in the past and just don’t anymore regardless of their effort. They can’t sell homes and its their profession, FSBO’s quickly find out they can’t either.

OK.

First, you need a Realtor. no not just any Realtor that you call up and that comes out. You need one that can truly sell your home. The age or number of years experience does not matter one bit. As a matter of fact there is a good chance the 25 to 30 yr vets may be less productive because of all the recent changes in the industry, no not all of them just making a point that it was less than 15 years ago that Realtors sold homes out of a folder book that you had to go to the office to see. SO if you are basing things on years of experience, you could be making a mistake.

Selling homes rely on these three things, 1. Price 2. Condition and 3. Marketing.

Price, for the obvious reason, if low enough any home will sale, you don’t need a realtor to price your home as low as you can get it, however you likely will need a good realtor to price your home appropriately. To get the maximum possible amount your home will yield. If I may interject my opinion, a Realtor should not rely on price reductions to sell your home. It should be priced right from day one. The first two weeks a home is up for sale is the most critical for getting the highest prices. This also means, homeowners need to listen when the research is done. That Realtor if he or she is the right Realtor for your home wants to sell your home just as much and sometimes more than you do. And he wants the most money for it as well.

Condition, although sometimes is a difference in opinion is a crucial factor in selling top dollar. I don’t want to tell you that all you have to do is clean up, paint and fix a few leaky faucets and you are going to sell for highest price because there is an element of market value at stake. And you may get offers that are higher than your appraisal will be. I am saying this, the home needs to be in its best possible shape, if you can’t afford to get it to its best, do the best you can, even it if means getting cleaning supplies and white paint. It’s that important. There is a different feel in a home that is clean and de-cluttered.

Marketing, here is the big one, this is the one where you decide who to hire. You need a Realtor who believes in his own marketing plan. Wait let me back track first you need a realtor with a marketing plan, then he needs to believe in it. You can tell by asking him about his plans to get the home sold, ask him what he and/or his team does to get the home sold. If he can’t confidently rattle off a good plan then likely he doesn’t truly have on. It need to be more than putting it in the MLS and displaying it one a bunch of websites. There needs to be out reach, and a proactive approach. Today, while money is short, less and less Realtors properly market homes, thus adding to sell headache.

There are no guarantees that your home will sell, I do wish you much success. I also hope my thoughts and experience will help you navigate to the best possible sale of your home.

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