how do I sell real estate in a slow market?

Answer 1

My husband and I had to recently sell our house in a slow-moving real estate market. Basically, we had to make our house stand out from all the other homes on the market. (We sold it in 3 months).

My advice to you is to actually visit open houses of other homes for sale in your neighborhood/area. Make a note of the condition of the houses, the curb appeal, the prices, etc. Then, go back to your own home, and decide how to make your property stand out from the other ones.

One of the biggest (and least expensive) things you can do to attract buyers is to have great curb appeal. I simply went to a garden store and potted some colorful plants and mulched the existing flowerbeds and put a little fence around the flowerbeds. This made everything look a little quaint and neater. Feedback from prospective buyers was very positive on this point.


We sold our house by keep the listing price slightly lower than any other homes in our area, and offering to work with ANY buyer in the home advertising flyers.

It mostly just takes patience and some creative thinking.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It is easy to sell houses in any market if you follow my tried and true advice.

First, you need to find out the true value of home. Look at tax assessed value, homes that have sold in the last 90 days, houses listed for sale and not under contract, houses listed for sale and under contract. Bank foreclosures in your zip code.

Second, the debt on the property is important. What is the balance of the mortgage(s)? If you owe more than the houses are selling for, this is a special situation that I won't address here.

Third, get a home inspection for your house. This will identify problems to be rectifed prior to placing home on market.

Fourth, improve the property to get top dollar. Start with outside first and move to inside. Kitchens and bathrooms are a premium, you can do minor improvements like replacing all faceplates with brush nickel or gold. If that is not in budget, at Home Depot or Lowes you can get new face plates for .10 each.

Now you are ready for sale. The financing on home depends on the most successful strategy. If there is no debt on house then you have the best home to sell. You can owner finance the home. Running ads such as "Owner will finance" in your local paper as well as Yahoo groups like Ownerwillcarry.com. Another strategy is rent to own.

You can conduct an auction. To do this read the book "Five Day Sale" by Bill Efros. In a slow market, marketing is the key. You may want to budget $5,000 for newspaper ads, flyers, signs, and maybe cable tv spots.

Cover all media. You can hire people to go door to door and place your ad for sale. Mail to apartment complexes, particularly if your house is a entry level home. Create a website, put the house on e-bay, and for sale by owner sites. The key in a slow market is marketing, marketing, marketing. Contact real estate investor associations in your area.

If you follow these steps you can sell your home. Even in the depression people needed a place to live.

Good Luck

Answer 3

There will always be some buyers, there just would be less of them. The trick is to put the advertising out at the right places, the right marketing venues.
The successful ones seem to be the ones who saturate the neighborhood with the sold signs. People get the idea that they can can give you the best deals. or best results if you are selling.

Answer 4

Get Three CMA’s:
Call three real estate agents that have at least two years of real estate sales experience. Tell them you are thinking of selling your property and want to get a CMA (CMA: Comparative Market Analysis). A CMA will be a written estimate of the value of your property based on recently sold properties that are similar to yours. Be sure and let the agents know that you are talking to other real estate agents. Between the three values you should be able to get a fairly good idea of what your home might sell for.

Heads Up #1:
There may be other homes in your neighbor that are for sale. Don’t confuse their asking prices for actual home values. Home sellers can ask any price for their home. Values are figured strictly by what similar homes have sold for.

Heads Up #2:
It is fairly likely that one of the agents may have set the CMA value considerably higher than the other two. This may be due to negligence on their part, but it is more likely that they are “buying the listing”. They set the CMA price high in an effort to get you to list with them. Later they will pressure you to lower your price to where it should have been in the first place. Of course by now they have wasted your time while you waited for your over-priced home to sell. I have seen this ploy over and over again. Don’t get taken by this deception

Answer 5

if you aren't willing to take a financial hit in a buyer's market, i recommend NOT selling. depending on how the numbers works out, you could consider renting the property. that way you have someone else paying down your mortgage and hopefully you can ride out the slow market. depending on how long you rent for, the home could appreciate, saving you thousands of dollars and hopefully netting you a nice return on investment. good luck!!

Answer 6

Be creative in advertising, staging the house and offer some unique bonuses (maybe a car, boat or something goes with it).

Answer 7

Price to sell. You may get a bidding war if the price is low enough.

Answer 8

Incentives, incentives, incentives. If I were you I would team up with a mortgage brokerage firm that can help buyers find those "special financing pkgs".......

Also, encourage buyers to assist the buyer with part of his/her closing costs and/or HOA dues.....

Answer 9

Hire a professional home stager to make your home irresistable to home buyers

http://www.iahsp.com/