Staging, Web presence among new guard of tips to sell home in down market
CHICAGO — The home next door is in foreclosure. The neighbors down the street just put their house up for sale at a ridiculous discount. And “For Sale’’ signs litter lawns all over town.
Welcome to the toughest selling conditions in years.
The bright side of selling a home in a down market is you get to seek your own bargain if you’re going to buy after you’re done. Closing a sale, however, can be slow if you don’t do everything right — and maybe even if you do.
The best tips for selling underscore how the market has changed:
■ Price aggressively. Even if you’re fully aware that prices have plummeted, it can come as a shock when a real estate agent advises you to slap a low-low price on your home.
The reality is that only 4 percent to 10 percent of homes on the market nationwide sell in a given month right now, according to Keim. A typical selling time for a home the last two years has been eight to ten weeks. But that timeframe makes selling sound easier than it is, because it doesn’t factor in all the homes that never sold, or were pulled off the market and later relisted.
■ Stage like a pro. You may not be able to compete with the price of homes in foreclosure, or with short sales — those in which a lender is allowing the seller to list for less than is owed on the mortgage. But you can outshine them when it comes to the condition and appearance of your house.
It can be an intense period of planting flowers, painting, and depersonalizing the house so buyers can envision themselves living there. Getting rid of clutter and rearranging rooms to highlight the best features also are essential.
■ Go all-out online. Sellers used to post photos of their homes online only sparingly to entice buyers to visit. No longer. With about 90 percent of buyers starting their search online, according to the National Association of Realtors, you can’t just tease and hope.
Agents recommend putting lots of high-resolution photos and as much information as possible online, including citing upgrades and what you love about living in the home. If you don’t show a photo of a key area — kitchen, bathrooms, backyard — prospective buyers may assume there’s something wrong and move on.
■ Be flexible with buyers. The single biggest change in the real estate market since the Great Recession is tighter financing, according to John Vogel Jr., real estate professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Banks once freely dispensed loans for 95 percent of a home’s value, but a requirement of 20 percent down is becoming the new normal in many cases. If you’re about to accept an offer, make sure you inquire about the down payment and know the buyer’s financing status. Consider accepting an all-cash offer, even if it’s not your highest. If your buyer is hitting a roadblock, consider talking with the lender to help structure a deal.
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Tags: Home, Home Market
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