Tips for Selling Your House Fast Without Giving it Away
In today’s market there are many houses competing to sell. Many of the houses are sitting on the market for 6 months to a year. In this market you must make your house stand out from the rest of the crowd. This article is especially important if you are facing foreclosure and need tips for selling your house fast.
When you deploy some or many of the strategies you will be able to sell your house faster, without sacrificing the price. I am sure that most people understand the importance of CLEANING AND DE-CLUTTERING the house, as well as CURB APPEAL AND FRONT DOOR appearance, so I’m going to skip what’s obvious, and get right to the other often neglected strategies for the Sellers.
1. OFFER CREATIVE FINANCING
In addition to being in the declining market, buyers are having a bad time trying to get financing. What if you can advertise your house for Owner Financing, or Rent-to-Own? Will this make your house stand out? Will this make your house more valuable? You bet it will. Creative Financing is POWER. Many homeowners shy away from doing the owner financing, but this may be a great way to save the house from going into foreclosure, if you just know how to apply this to your advantage.
For example, let’s say that you are 4 months behind in payment, and you have to sell the house quickly. But, even if you are not behind, how about offering Rent-to-own, with the Option Money to cover the 4 month behind or if you are not behind, just put that into your pocket, and get enough rent to cover your monthly mortgage, plus tax and insurance? Option money is a down payment for the buyer, but it is non-refundable, and that alone can save your house from going into foreclosure. The buyer is willing to pay premium for the house, say within a year or two. It might even be possible to make a little profit each month, depending on your total expenses to keep the house. Within an agreed upon term, the buyer is supposed to come up with the financing, and you will be off the hook. You are a landlord, but because this is structured as Rent-to-own, the maintenance responsibilities are shifted to the tenants, and since these tenants have the owner mentality, they will take care of the house. On the other hand, because you have not transferred the title to the prospective buyer, if they default on the rent payment, you can evict them, which is a lot easier than foreclosure. Guess what, the option money you received is non-refundable, because it is not a deposit. They paid you the right to the Option. After you evict the tenant, you can then look for another rent-to-own tenants.
Let’s talk about Owner Financing. This is an interesting way to attract more buyers. Many home owners are not aware that there are private note buyers willing to help you qualify the buyer, and help you structure the owner financing to the way they want (they will set the terms of the loan for you), and after the owner financing is set in place, at the closing, simultaneously, they will buy your note at a discount any where from 10-20%. If you are creative about this approach, you will set the listing price at the highest point that the appraisal will support, and you will not have to negotiate the price because of the fact that you are owner financing. In this scenario, it would also help to have your own appraisal, which will be used to structure the owner financing.
2. DO AS MUCH HOME WORK AS POSSIBLE FOR THE BUYER
Home buyer’s fears are the “unknowns”. Make their fears disappear by providing them the information they are looking for:
a) Home Inspection Report
Hire a reputable inspector to do the job. The Inspector should give you a return trip to your house either for free or give you a discount. His 2nd Trip is to update his report after the recommended repairs are done. He will make sure the repairs are done correctly. He should re-issue the inspection report with the absence of the problems he found originally.
If you choose not to do the repair, at least have a quotation for the repair, and document that the reduction in price for the house has been already considered.
b) Appraisal
While an Appraisal is a luxury item it is beneficial to have. If you don’t want to spend the money for the appraisal, hire a competent Realtor that can do a BPO, (Broker’s Price Opinion). BPO is not done as professionally as the Appraisals. However, it is a great indication of the market price. Sometimes, Realtors are more aware of the current market conditions, and they should be able to give you a good BPO without any charge.
The reason I say that Appraisal is a luxury is because the buyer will be likely to have to pay for an appraisal required by the lender anyway.
3. STAGING
Staging is particularly important for selling the house quickly, and with the highest price possible. I recommend hiring a Staging professional. They understand the psychology of the buyers, what attracts them, and what not to do. Creating space, flow and ideas for their new home is emphasized, and in many competitive areas, you will receive FREE recommendations, or you may want them to actually do some of the staging. Typical buyers will look at a lot of houses (approximately 7-10 houses a day) for several days or weeks, but they are only buying one. When looking at many houses, it is very easy to get confused. So, if the ranking does not remain at the top 2 or 3 the chances of being picked for their favorite is very slim. Many times, the listing agent wants to know what the potential buyer thought about the house. But if that house was eliminated earlier in the buyer’s mind they may not even remember how the house looked. If your house does not have the wow effect, you don’t stand the chance of being ranked in the top.
Market conditions for the Real Estate is now a totally different game than a year ago. The sellers need to be educated about options and strategies in order to sell their house.
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