Selling Your Home in a Slow Market

By: Gloria Smith

There are always ups and downs in the real estate market. If you are selling your home it is important to know what type of market you are going to be selling in. Take a look around your neighborhood. Are houses selling fast, or staying for sale for months?

Just remember the basics of selling a residential real estate property. With so many houses up for sale, think about making your home a standout from the others. This should be a priority. You need to keep your home in good condition before showing it to prospective buyers. By this, we mean fixing things that are not working well like your electrical, air conditioning and heating systems, repainting walls and ceilings that don’t look good anymore, cleaning your front and back yards as well as all the rooms inside the house and getting rid of the clutter. Keep in mind that a well-organized home promotes comfort and creates more space.

After you’re done preparing your home, be sure to set a fair market price. Avoid overpricing in a slow market when demand is low. What better way to do this is to find out the sales of comparable homes in your area during the past six months. This is what they call a market analysis. You can get information on this from your local county’s assessor or through its website. You may also consult a real estate agent you know if you’re still in doubt. Real estate experts even suggest to underprice your home by at least five to ten percent to attract more buyers. This strategy can lead to multiple bids and hopefully, to even a higher sale price than your estimated home value.

Offering incentives to buyers is another attraction. These incentives can include adding personal items in your home’s sale, covering the cost of repair to major appliances that breakdown within a year after the sale and paying the closing costs which normally is about three to six percent of the sale price. Another incentive that is gaining ground pertains to seller financing. This means that a buyer makes a big down payment of about 20 percent and then borrows the remainder directly from the home seller instead of getting a bank mortgage. The seller then gets paid by the buyer on a monthly basis and with a rate higher by about one percent compared to the bank’s charges.

Finally, don’t forget the marketing aspect. Have your home listed on various sites on the internet that offer free listing service and include a photo as well. Inform other family members, relatives, friends, colleagues and real estate agents you know about your home being sold and distribute flyers in public places in your locality.