Doom and gloom news abounds in today’s real estate market.

  • “Foreclosures: No relief in sight”
  • “Mortgage Bankers Association index falls 5.5 percent on lower demand for home-purchase and refinancing loans.”
  • “Prices drop for 4th straight quarter”

After hearing and reading news like that day after day for months now, lots of people are reaching the conclusion that the real estate market is down the proverbial tubes. 

Actually the real estate market (which is actually comprised of hundreds of local markets as opposed to one giant superstore) is alive and well in most areas.

Sure, some people that took out mortgages they were barely qualified for to start with are struggling and lots of them will unfortunately end up losing their homes. Several areas of the country where rampant speculation artifically ran up prices are seeing the downside of that speculation as their prices drop back to earth; but overall, homes are still selling, mortgage rates are still very attractive, and buyers are out there buying.

So if you have a house to sell today here’s 5 things you can do to help your house sell faster and for the best possible price.

Number 1. Fix it up and get it ready to sell. I don’t mean just dust and pick up the magazines laying around the couch. I mean get objective and look at your house as a buyer would. Do the walls need painting a neutral color? Paint them. Paint is about the cheapest fix up thing you can do, and offers the best bang for your buck.

Clean! Not just run the vacuum and swish out the bathtubs. I mean consider hiring a professional cleaning crew to come in and clean all the windows, scrub out the bathrooms and the kitchen, clean along where the walls meet the ceilings, and clean places you don’t normally touch.

knoxville tn homes for sale

Carpet worn and threadbare? Replace it. Carpet allowances generally say to a buyer; “I’m just going to let you walk on our worn out carpeting instead of replacing it.” Lots of times you can get 90 day or long, same as cash financing from carpet stores and pay for this upgrade out of your closing proceeds. Be sure to choose a neutral color and use the same color throughout.

Fix up, clean up are the best things you can do to make sure your house sells quickly for top dollar. Visit my website for a list of 40 free or almost free things you can do to make your home more appealing to potential buyers.

Number 2. Price it below the market value. I know I just said the housing market is still pretty good but there are also tons of homes on the market right now and the more ways you can make yours outstanding to a potential buyer the better your odds of selling at a good price. Maybe not the absolute best possible price but you will sell and get a good price.

Number 3. Offer some incentives to your buyers. Lots of buyers are well qualified these days but are cash poor. Offer to pay 3% of so of your asking price towards their closing costs. This alone will make your house stand above the crowd especially if you also do numbers 1. & 2. above.

Number 4. Offer some incentives to Realtors as well as buyers. A 1/2% higher commission offered to a buyer’s agent could encourage them to push your house over others to their buyers. Or throw in a $1,000 cash bonus to anyone bringing you an acceptable offer by a certain deadline, say 30 days or less.

Number 5. Throw in some attention getting, non-traditional incentives. For just a few hundred bucks you could offer a buyer a years worth of maid service or lawn care. Things like that appeal most to the person that actually does that work. For the same few hundred bucks you could offer a Caribbean vacation. Lots of buyers would think about a nice break after house hunting and going through the buying process.

Here’s what some truly “motivated” sellers and builders of new homes are doing.

  • “in Medford, Ore., Diane Adams, a real-estate agent, is offering to pay four months of mortgage payments on the $975,000 house she and her home-builder husband constructed on 20 acres near Crater Lake.”
  • In Richmond, Va., Orleans Homebuilders Inc. is offering “Sizzling Summer Sale Savings” that include as much as $100,000 off the cost of upgrades ranging from granite countertops to a conservatory”
  • “Among other things, they are offering buyers cash discounts of as much as 20%, throwing in a pool and agreeing to finish basements, garages and other spaces at a cost of several thousand dollars.”

Bottom line; there are still lots of buyers out there looking to buy but there are also lots of homes for sale. The more things and ways you can make yours stand above the crowd, the better chances of selling quickly for the best possible price.

If you would like some professional advice I would be glad to stop by at your convenience, walk through your house with you, and suggest what you should do to help it sell faster for more money.

I’m also an accredited staging professional so I can give you some staging tips as well.

As always, no cost, no obligation, all I ask is if you should choose a Realtor to professionally market your home you consider me.

Good luck and happy selling.