Key Sales and Marketing Techniques for Selling a Home Fast
By Mark J. Donovan
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One of the most common mistakes sellers make when putting their house on the market is listing it too high. Pricing your house to sell at the get-go is vital for attracting the attention of both real estate agents and buyers. If real estate agents see a new listing and immediately react negatively to the price, they are unlikely to attend the caravan or open house to see the home first hand. Consequently they won’t have any personal knowledge about your home or interest to show it when they have potential buyers.
Likewise, smart buyers who also do their homework and compare listings are also likely to pass over your home. |
It becomes quickly obvious if you’ve priced your house too high, if you receive few inquiries or showings in the first couple of weeks it’s on the market. Unfortunately, even if you begin inching the price downwards, you’ve already probably set yourself up for continued weak interest.
| Though pricing your house lower than what you personally believe it is worth can be emotionally draining, it is simply a basic fact of supply and demand, and something you need to quickly get over. When pricing your house to sell it is important to carefully study the competitive listings and objectively evaluate how your home compares. It is critical to be brutally honest with your home’s assessment relative to the competition. In some cases, it may make sense to go out and tour the competitive listings first hand. Sometimes walking through a competitive listing can help to bring quick closure in your comparison to your home. |  |
While studying the competitive listings also check how long they have been on the market. If competitive homes have been on the market for months, then chances are they too are priced too high as well. If it’s truly your objective to sell your home, then you should price your home below competitive listings that have been on the market for a long time.
| If pricing your home to sell at a lower level is something that you cannot do, either for financial or emotional reasons, then your only possible alternative is to add value to your home to sell it at a higher price.
This path, however, takes additional financial investment and resources in a home that you are trying to sell. That said, by investing a few thousand dollars in some new flooring and paint, for example, you may be able to sell your home at a slight premium over the cost of the additional investment. When selling your home it all comes down to price and perceived value. Consequently it is imperative to put your home’s best foot forward before listing it. Extensive cleaning and organization, both the interior and exterior of the home, should be done prior to putting your home up for sale. |
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It is highly advisable to clean and/or paint marked up walls, and have the carpets professionally cleaned prior to listing a home. Also, all broken items associated with the home should be repaired, e.g. doors, windows and appliances.
| In addition, all clutter should be removed from each room in the home. Consider renting storage space and storing items in it so that each room of the home is sparsely populated with furniture and other belongings. The goal is to stage the home as if it was a model home that will dazzle real estate agents and potential buyers alike.
If you’ve already listed your home priced too high to sell, then consider taking it off the market for a month or so and putting some work into it. Then put it back on the market at a realistic price to actually sell your home. |
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With any luck you’ll have real estate agents now anxious to show your home and buyers that are blown away by its value compared to the competition.
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