When people think of how to sell a house fast, they often think of how to advertise it better, or how to make it more presentable. That can be a good start, of course, but it ignores the single most important factor: price. Generally, if homes are selling in three months in your area and yours hasn't sold for seven months, it's probably over-priced.
Pricing it right has become especially important to selling a house fast during the recent housing slump. If you price it too high and wait six months, prices may have dropped another 5% in the meantime. On a $200,000 home that means that now you need not only to drop the price to where it should have been to begin with, but $10,000 lower. That's the big risk of over-pricing - you might actually make far less in the end.
There are more reasons that you can really hurt yourself by pricing a home too high and so delaying a sale. For example, there are holding costs if you don't live in the house any longer. You have to pay taxes, insurance, and possibly maintenance and utilities while you wait. Then there is the time and money spent advertising and showing the home. When you price it right eventually, you'll have to start advertising all over again. In other words, you will pay to market your home twice.
These costs will never be recovered. That means that you might be better off aiming for the faster sale at a lower price to begin with. Even if waiting does mean finding a buyer who will pay a few thousand more, if you have spent that much more in the meantime, you just added stress to your life for no actual gain.
Also, the "right" buyer for your home might have passed on by because it was over-priced. You might have to later sell it to someone who won't pay as much as the other buyer would have. While the price is high, all the buyers whose price range is just below your price will never see the home. When they enter their criteria into an MLS search, your home won't show up in the selection, even though they might have paid more than you will eventually sell the home for.
People are suspicious of homes that have sat unsold for a year, and less likely to make an offer even if you have finally lowered the price. In their minds they may be thinking, "Oh, that's the house that has been for sale forever. I wonder what's wrong with it?"
With an over-priced home you may have problems closing the deal. If you get lucky enough to find a buyer at your inflated price, don't hold your breath. Chances are the appraisal will come in lower than they want, and they won't be able to get the loan to buy your home.
Pricing Your House To Sell
Perhaps you are now convinced that you need to properly price your home. This means not too low, but especially not too high. How then, do you decide what the price should be? Normally it should be just a little more than what the market is likely to pay. In other words, close enough to the market value to avoid the over-pricing problems outlined above, but with some room to drop the price a bit too.
But in today's market (2009), with real estate values still dropping in many areas, it makes sense to price it a little lower than current market value. This is how to sell a house fast today. Remember that you are saving the costs of holding onto the home, and avoiding the risk of having to lower the price even further later. So that lower price doesn't necessarily cost you anything.
Copyright Steve Gillman. Should you
Sell Your Home now, or wait for prices to go up? An answer to that and a free real estate investing course are yours at: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com
