It is possible to sell your home even in today’s market. The big question you must first ask though is whether you want to be “on” the market or “in” the market.
Lets take a look…
There are a lot of factors that contribute to the value of a home. Even so, the reality is the seller only has control over two of those factors… Price and Condition. A seller can’t control the taxes, the seller can’t control the rating of the local school, the seller can’t control the lot size etc. On the other hand, the seller does have control over the price of the home as well as the condition of the home.
As I heard it spelled out one time during a real estate webinar, there are essentially three places you can be when selling your home…
1. On the market
2. No Man’s Land
3. In the market
If you are “on the market” you are listed, but not getting any showings or offers. Therefore, you will need to adjust either your price or the condition of the home…or both.
If you are getting showings, but still are not getting any offers then you have entered what is called No Man’s Land. To get out of No Man’s Land and actually start to get offers you will have to once again adjust either the price of your home or the condition of your home…or both.
Where you really want to be is IN the market. You know you are IN the market when you are getting both showings and offers.
So, the trick is to adjust your Price and Condition to position yourself IN the market. However, for most people, the reality is it is much easier to adjust the price of the home than it is to adjust the condition of the home.
Now if you really want to sell your home fast, the best approach is to under-price it 10% below comparative market value.
This approach often times leads to multiple offers and therefore bidding wars which actually drive the price of your home back up. You see once someone has mentally committed to buying a home and has already pictured himself living there, he is much more likely to come up in price when he finds out someone else wants to buy his dream home.
Again, if you want to sell your home you must be IN the market. The price of the home and the condition of the home are the only two factors a seller has control over to position the house IN the market. To sell your home fast we suggest doing only minor upgrades while focusing more on under-pricing your home to generate more showings and more offers and quite possibly a bidding war.