It’s no surprise that it is hard to sell a home these days. Even in the best areas, homes can sit on the market for months and even years.
While this is great for home buyers because they have their pick of homes, home sellers need to work extra hard to make a sale.
The longer a house is on the market, the more it costs the seller:
- You might lose out on your own home buying opportunities.
- Or you could lose more money — especially if you have already purchased a new home, or need to get out of a home that you can no longer afford.
As a homeowner, you have to get creative about the ways you attempt to sell your home, since homes aren’t selling very fast on their own these days.
Here are some creative ways to sell your house fast…
#1 Have A Home Auction
I first heard about home auctions in the late 1990’s. There was a news report that homeowners were having great success in auctioning their home instead of waiting weeks and months for a buyer to come along.
In the early days of Ebay, home auctions online were somewhat successful. But due to location issues, Ebay home auctions became more of an expensive listing service.
Still, home auctions are a good way to sell your house fast. (Or, you could even raffle off your house!)
According to Consumer Reports, the best way to sell a home fast is with the use of an auction house.
#2 Price Your Home Competitively
Even if a home buyer falls in love with your house and it is in the perfect location for them, money will ultimately be the determining factor in terms of how quickly your house sells.
If you’re selling a car or a house in today’s sluggish economy, make sure the price is right.”
— 4 Pricing Tricks To Sell Your Home Faster, MSN Real Estate
Did you know that a precise price (as opposed to a round number) will affect buyers differently? Plus, you need to make sure your home is priced significantly lower than other houses in your area that are comparable to yours — if you want a quick sale, that is.
Now here’s an idea!… Check out this couple who is offering a free house — buy it now, and get your money back when they die!
Keep in mind that you may also be competing with foreclosures. In addition to pricing your home competitively, you will also want to offer buyer incentives such as closing costs, points, or a decorating and appliance allowance.
#3 Re-Think The Open House
There was a time when you could definitely sell a house faster with an open house. Now, all an open house attracts is nosy neighbors.
The truth is, there are just as many reasons not to have an open house, as there are reasons to have one if you want to sell your house fast.
Pro’s
- Secrets To The Open House
- How To Hold Successful Open Houses
- Open House Secret Formula
- How To Host The Best Open House Ever
Con’s
- Who Benefits From An Open House?
- Do Open Houses Help Sell Your Home?
- Is An Open House A Waste Of Time?
- Do Open Houses Sell Homes?
#4 Enlist The Help Of Neighbors
For starters, you could have a neighbors-only open house. This will get the looky-Lou’s out of the way, and also get your neighbors thinking about who they know might be looking for a house.
Offer neighbors a $200 gift card, if they can bring you a buyer. Instead of having one realtor trying to help you find a home buyer, you will instantly have 20 to 50 people working for you!
Along those same lines, see how having a garage sale can help sell your house fast!
#5 Have A Virtual Open House
Most home buyers start their search for a home online. So why wouldn’t you want to marke
t your house online?
About 77% of all home buyers say they house hunt online, so Web presentation is extremely important.
— Insider Marketing Tricks To Sell Your House, ABC News
To have a virtual open house you simply need to take wide-lens photos of your home, and create a virtual home tour. Then, post your virtual home tour on YouTube and advertise the link to your virtual open house on message boards and websites — like Craigslist and other local websites. Of course, if you have your own blog, post it there too. (Like they do at Bloggerslane.)
Here are lots of examples of virtual home tours.
I have been a certified tightwad since I became pregnant with my first child and decided to find a way to stay home with him. I enjoy sharing my experiences in my journey back to financial health and planning for a future -- which will include sending 2 kids to college and early retirement.
