Where is your house located? The professor of my Real Estate
Principles class started each class regarding real estate value with the words,
location, location, location. Location
is the most important single factor regarding the value of property. Move your home to the next school district,
and you can instantly add $100,000 to the price of your home in some
neighborhoods! On the other hand, if
your home is situation a few feet from a major intersection or air planes are
constantly taking off and landing in your back yard, your home can easily be
lowered by the same amount.
The most common mistake when listing your home is listing it
for a greater price that any buyer would be willing to pay for it. This starts a snowball effect. When it sits on the market for weeks, people
wonder if there is something more serious wrong with the house. Eventually, it becomes a stale listing and
realtors stop showing it, and it’s so far down on any listings, potential
buyers don’t even get an opportunity to see it.
Even a listing price which has been inflated as little as 5% can deter
buyers. If you are really serious about
selling your home, prove it! Unclench
the fists! Let the real estate community
know that you are serious. Compare
similar properties in your area and list yours a bit under. You’ll be packing your house up before you
know it.
Does your home look tired or outdated? The good news is cosmetic fix ups and updates
can be very inexpensive. A fresh coat of
paint or updated hardware or faucets can give your home an entirely new
look. Brightly colored flowers in pots
out front of a freshly painted home will beckon those buyers in to see the rest
of your home.
Current market conditions are an important factor in determining
whether a house will sell quickly. In a
buyers market, the houses will tend to sit lazily on the market with time to
spare. Contrarily, in a sellers market,
the houses sell so fast that sometimes you are lucky to hear about a potential
house to view before it sells. However,
I recently had a client wait a week before making a move on a property she
loved in our current buyer’s market.
This beautifully staged home, priced slightly below current market
value, didn’t last a week. Market
conditions are important, but there are ways to push through the trend with the
right price and look of your home.
With a reasonable price and a look that wows, your home
should sell in a relatively short amount of time. If you are not sure why it’s not moving, a
good realtor will give you an objective opinion about how to spruce it up or
what to shave off the price.