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Five Key Strategies to SELL Your Home
by Audra Slinkey
With more housing bad news on the
horizon and the summer season almost over, home sellers and their
agents are legitimately stressed over selling their homes!
"New-home sales took their fifth fall in six months during June,
while a measure of inventory rose and the median price dropped"
according to the Wall Street Journal*. "Sales
of newly built homes slid 6.6% from May to June, the Commerce
Department said — and were down a sharp 22% from June of last year.
That report follows Wednesday's news that sales of existing homes
fell last month to their lowest point in nearly five years.*"
Don't expect a turn-around anytime soon but here are
five key strategies that should be used TODAY in order to compete in
a "large inventory" market and sell your home...
1. Have Your Home
PROFESSIONALLY Staged - According to the National Association of
Realtors, the average staging investment is between 1 and 3 percent
of the home's asking price, which generates a return of 8 to 10
percent. For an average priced home of $250,000, spending
$2500 to $7500 will generate a return of $20,000 to $25,000!
In today's much more competitive market, having your home staged by
an expert who does this for a living is all the more imperative.
A HSR professional will spend time
simply working with what you already own in order to bring out the
beauty of your home. This kind of "zero dollar" professional
staging makes a world of difference in a home...just look at our
Staging Day video to see what was done in a day simply with what
the seller had.
When I review the MLS and see that
photos of homes that have clearly not been professionally staged,
it's no wonder they are lowering their asking price. The
market is too competitive entering into the holiday season, so ALL
serious home sellers should be using a
professional to stage their homes!
2. Invest in Cosmetic
Improvements NOW! - According to a 2005/2006 Maritz Research
Poll, 79% of sellers are willing to spend up to $5000 to get their
house ready for sale. In this much more competitive market, it
all the more critical for sellers to do this if they are serious
about selling their home!
There are some cosmetic improvements
you can make to a home that will, on average, net you a greater
return than the cost of the improvement, thus be an investment.
A
HSR Professional is trained on those improvements that will net
you the greatest return on investment, and should be able to direct
you specifically in those areas in the form of a detailed Action
Plan for your home.
Don't guess at where to spend these
cosmetic investments and waste money. Use a trained professional who
is experienced at stretching your dollar for maximum impact and
return! According to that same Maritz Research Poll, reported
that over 63% of buyers were willing to pay more money for a home
that is "move-in ready". Buyers don't want to purchase a "To
Do" list when they can buy a new home for the same price.
3. Price Right From the
Start - It's almost the end of summer so if you HAVE to put your
home on the market, make sure you price it right instead of shooting
high. When a home is newly listed, there is an introductory
buzz among agents and home buyers, so take advantage of the new
listing buzz by pricing accordingly.
A National Association of Realtors
survey found that the longer a home stays on the market, the further
below list price it drops. Homes that sold in the first 4
weeks averaged 1% more than the list price; 4 to 12 weeks averaged
5% less; 13 to 24 weeks averaged 6.4% less than list price; and 24
weeks averaged more than 10% less than list price.
4. Strong Internet
Presentation - According to the National Association of
Realtors, over 85% of home buyers are ONLINE viewing listings BEFORE
considering a visit to the home. To this day, it amazes me
that there are still listings on Realtor.com that have only a single
photo or no photo altogether! Home sellers need to wake-up to
the outside marketing efforts put forth by their agents and insist
on a strong Internet presentation if they expect ANY buyer traffic!
A HSR Certified Professional can
actually create a beautiful home
show for their real estate agent partners since they are getting
the best photos after each room has been staged. These shows
make a tremendous difference in emotionally marketing to the few
buyers out there and giving them a reason to visit the home. I
can only surmise that the reason more photos are not being displayed
of the home online, is because strategies one and two are NOT being
employed...which means sellers should be prepared to lower their
price.
5. Consider An Increased
Agent Incentive - Think about it, if a real estate agent has a
buyer, where are they going to take them in this gluttonous housing
market? Will they waste time going to an un-staged home
offering the standard 3% incentive? Or will they take their
buyers to a move-in ready, professionally staged, home offering 3
1/2%-4% incentive? There is A LOT of housing inventory
available, and agents have many choices as to what they will show
their clients.
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