Recently a friend was asking me what I know about how to sell my home in a recession. So I asked him if he needed the advice for himself and he admitted that he had to sell his home soon. Of course I told him not to worry. Because I buy and sell homes regularly he probably thought I have a different method of selling a house in a recession than selling one in a robust economy. I surprised him by saying the economy really doesn’t make any difference when you sell a home.
Back when I was first learning how to sell my home, meaning any of the homes that I buy to rent or resell, I figured out that there’s no real difference between selling in a robust economy compared to a slow economy. The real goal is the same, and that is to find just the right buyer who wants the home and is also
qualified financially to purchase house. My house doesn’t have to please everyone, it only has to attract one buyer who with the desire, the credit and the down payment necessary.
Finding a buyer in a slow economy means there may be fewer people qualified to buy my home, but the truth is that I am really looking for just one buyer. Although there may be fewer people in the market for a house like mine, I have the tools to find my buyer every time. I have to think creatively about how to sell my home, and make a plan to find my buyer at just the right time.
Looking in the mirror I remind myself that I was excited to
buy this house once upon a time and now time has gone by and I’m selling it. I think back to a time when I really wanted to buy the home and work hard to remember why I wanted it. Was it the oak kitchen cabinets or the hand hewn fireplace mantle, or the built-in laundry room storage shelves? I sit down and write out a list of everything I liked about the home when I bought it and I use that same list to attract another buyer.
So , I told my friend to the same thing, to go home and take a long, hard look at his home in order to remember why he bought it. Then I said, “Use your information to advertise your home, use those words in the ad.” He was excited to think that he really knew how to attract his new buyer.