Unloading a home in a slow market is a bitter pill to swallow. The small number of people looking to buy can put undue pressure on your shoulders and keep your home on the market for longer than you’d like. As such, what can you do to make the selling process happen faster? Here are our thoughts on the matter.
Consider selling your home ‘as is.’
First and foremost, the ‘we buy houses as is’ mentality is a great one to consider moving forward. Potential buyers in a slow market love the idea of seeing houses and eventually buying them in their current condition. ‘We buy houses as is’ means that they won’t have to worry about any problems or issues themselves. Instead, they can hand over a sum of money in cash—and in full—without needing to negotiate with the seller beforehand.
Get a price just right for you—and your buyers.
Consider positioning your home at the right price. Nobody wants to buy a house for too much money, especially one they might not be proud to show off to friends and family right away. Think about how to sell your house for its best price. Being thorough with how you determine the right price is also valid here, just as it is in any other financial situation.
Understanding the Slow Market
A slow real estate market usually comes after a long run of no home sales, a ton of inventory, and houses that sit on the market for what feels like forever. What’s more, buyers have a hard time pulling the trigger, and as a result, there aren’t many transactions and house prices might go down. Many things can drive this kind of situation—there might be some kind of financial turndown, or maybe interest rates are starting to climb, or people can’t find jobs. All three are sure to cut into market (or buyer) confidence.
Also be wary of seasonality. The housing market does go up and down throughout the year. Nobody buys houses during the winter because nobody wants to move during the winter, so you’ll see less stuff for sale. In your town, maybe there’s a local event that everyone’s paying attention to, and that causes the market to slow down. Or in your part of the land, winter comes earlier, stays later, and is generally wetter than it is for the rest of the country, so again, there will naturally be less “traffic” for houses at this time.
You (as a buyer or a seller) definitely want to develop the right strategy to deal with this stuff. But, if you’re a seller (or you’re a real estate agent and the housing market is just extra slow), you also want to take different approaches to a number of key areas. First, the price of your house is definitely going to have to change. Along with that, you’ll probably want to make your house look a little better (some more houses for sale + some less consumer confidence = a greater need for “curb appeal”) and alter how you go about showings (as mentioned above, this is probably when you want to stage a house earlier).
Finally, take things up a notch and knock things back a bit with your marketing. Again, not so much money is changing hands, so there’s no doubt fewer people are going to be looking at houses. As such, you’re probably going to have to push your product (your house or what have you) a lot harder, and that’s probably going to involve spreading your tentacles online, across the rest of mobile, and onto every social media website you know. As you do all of this, you’re also going to want to “step up your game.” Generally, the level of difficulty with houses like these just requires you to add a little extra…”skill across the board.”
How to Sell My Home Fast: Key Strategies
Pricing your home competitively, to attract buyers and sell in the shortest amount of time, is a crucial aspect of the home selling process. The price is based on a comparative market analysis (CMA), which looks at similar properties in your neighborhood that have sold recently. The CMA is used to understand what the market is doing at this particular time so that you can price your home accordingly. Some sellers will even price the home a little lower in hopes of driving up the price, as multiple offers may accomplish this goal.
Curb appeal is something else you can add to your home as this also works well. People driving by the home or pulling up to see it for the first time will usually make up their minds about the home within the first 30 seconds of seeing it. A nice, green yard, an organized and tidy porch, and a house that doesn’t look like it needs repair is key. Cleaning this up and adding some points of interest might get people interested, and this group of people might potentially be the future buyer of your home.
An aggressive marketing strategy utilizing online marketing, open houses, and mailouts is a great idea to get your home in front of the right people. The goal is to reach the largest number of people, and to do this, your real estate agent needs to be well-versed in this strategy. They should also have contacts with reliable professional photographers who take the best pictures. Pulling in a staging crew, where necessary.
Alternative Selling Options
Home sales can be extremely intimidating for unseasoned sellers, let alone the guys with run-down property or ugly houses. The words “we buy houses as is” might be the perfect solution for that problem.
“We buy houses as” is the slogan of fast house buyers (investors actually) that are willing to give sellers an “easy out.” For a lot of people lacking in home design knowledge, this can be the perfect opportunity to sell their home and get a fresh start in a new one.
There are those people that NEED to sell their homes. While we would never wish this on anyone, financial trouble and things like job relocations happen — it’s an unfortunate fact of life. Since they specialize in “we buy houses as is,” they can close in as fast as a few weeks and you could potentially get on with your life, unharmed!
Preparing for Showings and Open Houses
When selling a property, one of the most important things is to make your property readily available for showings. Flexibility can range from same-day showings to once per week based on your availability, but the more people that physically walk through your property, the better chance you have to sell it, which means you probably need to work out your schedule when you have your property listed.This constant state of ‘show-ready’ can be much more challenging for people that are natural “clutter bugs” or simply for people that are very busy. Your agent might call you one morning at 6 a.m. because a potential new homeowner requests to see your home before they go to work at 8 a.m.Organized open houses are a bit of a Box of Chocolates (“You never know what you’re gonna get…”). Every open house is different. Some have 30 groups that show up, and others may only have two people show up. This can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, day of the week/time of day, and even by the weather. A colder and/or rainy day is typically going to have lower foot traffic.
Negotiating Offers
In a slow market, keep an open and flexible attitude. The people making you offers may feel less confident in their ability to predict the future or know the value of a property. In particular, they may not want to offer as much money. Offer negotiations move in three ways:
- Downwards in price
- Adjusting an offer and sales price away from a cash deal
- Replying to a low-ball cash offer
People by nature are often more invested in “making contact” than making money. Most people have paid too much for something at some point and felt okay about it. Just my two cents. I think rigid survivor types are more common on BHW because, well, they survived to make a post.
Selling a house fast can feel slightly more complicated in a slow real estate market but it can be done, starting with pricing your home competitively. As with any commodity, the correct price is what someone is willing to pay for it. Research (and lots of it) on comps in your area will help you conclude what price to set.
Don’t go high only to reduce it later. The inevitable price drop can send a dangerous signal to potential buyers. A well-researched real estate professional can point you in the right direction for prices and how to negotiate.
Curb appeal is an easy place that your home can shine. Look at minor landscaping, new paint, and other surface-level repairs that can attract more homebuyers. If you feel up to the task, add it to your list of fun home projects to do.
Staging is one of the more common tools used to sell a house fast. Decluttering the house, rearranging it, and adding surface-level changes like deodorizers can make your home feel better. Buyers need to be able to picture their “new” home.
If traditional home-selling advice doesn’t appeal to you, one of the fastest and most practical ways to sell a house in any market is to sell it to a real estate investor. How so? Investors don’t need all of the extras to complete a sale. You’ve already won them over! Real estate investors manage deals in a similar state every day. Instead of being deterred by your home’s quirks, they will take the opportunity to save you both time and money on the deal — plus, it’s the fastest way to sell a house