How to sell home now for top dollar and without real estate commissions.

 

 

 

Interesting Sell Home Now Related Articles

 

Who won't be helped by housing fix

 

7 tips to Sell Your Home in a Crowded Market

 

 

 

Cheap Ways to Sell a Home Now!

We know it's frustrating when you are in a position where you have to Sell Home Now. As corporate employees we were constantly moving and having to sell another house. We finally got so we had done it so often we stopped hiring agents to do what we could do better.

I remember a conversation I had with an agent who called and said, “Are you ready to drop the price of your house and sell home now?”

The answer was, “NO!” Our house had only been for sale a few days. We were not ready to give up.

I replied, “If you can’t sell our house better than we can and for more money, how do you earn your money?”

He hung up on me without replying or answering the question.

Our house sold a few days later for the asking price. A real estate lawyer handled the closing for us for a small fee. Most lawyers can handle real estate transactions.

We didn’t have to drop the price of our house or pay a real estate agent and we pocketed at least $25,000 dollars he could have cost us.

We started marketing our own houses when realized that WE, not out real estate agents, were doing the tasks that REALLY sold our houses. And with most corporate moves we always needed to Sell Home Now!

How Do You Sell Home Now? Here’s how we did it.

The first task is to decide what your asking price will be when you sell. The pricing component is a key component to sell home now.

What you can’t do is add together your purchase costs and the costs of remodeling and set the price with wishful thinking.

We usually check selling prices for homes nearby at the tax office. You want to check at the tax office so you have the facts and you want to use very recent sales. The last 30 to 60 days work. Ignore anything older. Throw out the low and the high and average the rest.

You want a market price to sell home now and this is a good way to set one. It’s similar to a comparative appraisal. (You also have to consider the market when you do any remodeling. It’s the real reason a fixer upper has to sell significantly below market. Remodeling costs a lot of $$$.)

Next you must prepare your house for showing. If you really want to sell a home now and have not done these tasks, do them now.

You can sell home now.

Here’s how to Sell Home Now:

1. Clean up and donate junk. Remember to make lists for tax deductions.
2. Paint anything that needs painting. Paint is cheap and will make you house look and smell new. Buyers want “new”. They also want “light”, so give them what they want. Hire a painter if you don’t feel you can do a good job. It must look perfect.
3. Clean and de-clutter your kitchen. It’s a very important room. Make it look as good as you can, but don’t overspend. Granite counter tops may be way too costly. Only do what is reasonable. Clean and uncluttered may be all you need. Clean the stove and the fridge. Buyers will look inside them.
4. Make sure your closets are pristine and look a little empty. There should be nothing on the floor of any closet. Buyers WILL look. Make sure they see something good.
5. Pack up anything that is valuable or sensitive and store it elsewhere during the showing process. Also store most of your toys, both the kid’s and yours.
6. Make sure electronics, videos and wires are carefully hidden and not the first things you see when you enter any room.
7. Your house needs to SMELL nice. Cinnamon, vanilla, lime, lemon or orange are nice smells. Athletic shoes, cat litter boxes and doggies are not. We always take the pets away during showings and open houses.
8. If you can’t clean well enough hire a cleaning service until the house is sold.
9. Make minor repairs. Buyers are OK with projects if you want to sell cheap, but do you? Probably not.

Once you have finished cleaning then you need to stage your house for showings. Staging is important to sell home now because what you are doing is creating a fantasy in buyers’ minds. “If I buy this house I will be perfect and serene.”

If you want to sell home now, you want to make your house look like a 5 star hotel suite. Staging is another critical component to sell home now.

1. Stage your living room or family room like an inviting conversation area. Yes, we all watch TV but try to make a focal point that seems more inviting. If a buyer comes in and sits down they are interested. What’s the first thing buyers see when the walk into your house or any room of your house. You want them to see a great picture.
2. If you have 3 bedrooms or less, stage them all as bedrooms. The bed needs to be opposite the door, with a bedside table on each side with lamps. Leave as much walking around room as possible. Clothing in closets works better than a lot of dressers for showing houses.
3. Have lots of lamps and turn them all on during showings. People want light.
4. If you have a great view show it off with furniture placement. People love views. If you don’t have great views group furniture around a fireplace or an entertainment center that looks great.
5. If you only have 1 bath or 1& ½ baths try to add at least a second bath. It could be a simple as adding a small shower in a closet space adjacent to a ½ bath. Houses with 1 bath are difficult to sell even to single people. The second bath could bring you many more potential buyers. Just keep ruthless control of costs. A shower stall can be bought at DIY stores for as little as $300 and they are not hard to install. And remember, a bedroom can be small but it must have a closet and a window to be defined as bedrooms for appraisal purposes. If you take a closet and turn it into a shower, you have to build a new closet for the bedroom. This is the only remodel besides paint and repairs that we think can really pay off more than you spend.
6. Strip off old wallpaper. Buyers don’t like it and it can make your house look really old and dated. Wallpaper is not always hard to remove, even though most people will do anything to avoid this task. But since wallpaper can make your house not sell it’s a big deal. Buyers will usually buy a house without wallpaper rather than try to get rid of yours. Do it for them. If a contractor has primed or painted the walls before hanging wallpaper it should strip off easily. Or you can paint over it or hang new sheet rock. If the wallpaper has a vinyl coating it will take paint better. Grass cloth paper can look great painted. Some papers will blister up and look awful. The sheetrock option might be the best bet for damaged walls. Finishing sheet rock is not difficult. It comes in ¼ inch thickness and may be easier than trying to remove old wallpaper from unprimed walls. Either way, don’t give up on getting rid of wallpaper.

Another sell home now secret is to make sure your house looks great from the street. You know, curb appeal. It’s your first and best opportunity to get a buyer to come inside. So you want to trick the place up like a beauty queen. Cute houses will sell even with imperfections. You want your house to look great.

1. Make sure the colors of your exterior look great. Color is really important but many people don’t really understand color. Most people tend to like color schemes with at least 3 colors, at least 1 of which is a cool, light color. We can give you more specific recommendations for a fee. But an easy way to work your way through color is to think about how you dress. Or get a fashionable friend to help.
2. And pay attention and respect to the architectural style of your house. Do you have a country farmhouse or a cottage or a mid century modern or a big transitional mini-mansion? Whatever it is, go with it and respect it. If your house lacks character, try to find some for it. Do what you can to make it more attractive.
3. Landscaping can help make your house look great. Many plant nurseries will help with landscaping if you buy plants from them. It is sometimes the best and cheapest way to make your house look better.
4. Trim around windows and doors and paint the trim a different color from the body of the house. White or cream work.
5. Shutters help if the house is the right style for them.
6. Window boxes look good on many houses.
7. A porch, pergola, deck or terrace may help sell home now, too.

The next Step to Sell Home Now is to get the word out and draw people in to see your product.

1. Tell everyone you know that you are going to sell home now.
2. Tell all your neighbors. They might want to pick their new neighbor. Let them. Your neighbors can make the sale for you. This is especially true in slow real estate markets.
3. Advertise your house in local papers.
4. Be prepared for showings. Get help from friends and family with the logistics of safe and successful showings. You don’t know some of the people who may look at your house. Try to qualify a buyer by asking questions. Are you pre-approved for a loan? Do you have to sell another home before you buy? Are you a transferee? Do you have a family? Be snoopy! There are even web sites where you can check out someone you don’t know. Better safe than sorry.
5. Be quiet during showings. Identify the rooms, although with good staging the function of rooms should be obvious. You want the potential buyer to do the talking. What do they like and what do they not like? You need to know, so LISTEN!

Now, notice that most of the tasks we have recommended are not expensive fixes. Many can be DIY and only involve cleaning and staging things you already own.

Painting is the least expensive of all the remodeling options and I always do it myself. In fact I have done so much painting I am better at it than many pros. I often do it for fun. It’s the best way there is to freshen a space and give it new life.

Real estate agents will tell you to do expensive remodeling that could cost much more than you make at resale. Few remodeling projects bring a 100% return on investment.

What that really means is you lose!

Only do projects that make the house look good and clean. Granite countertops could cost thousands more than they would bring at resale. But an extra ¾ bath in a 1 bath house could cost less than $1000 bucks and make your house more marketable. Pick the upgrades that really work and keep the costs down. You can save money to invest in a business opportunity or save the credit card interest costs. Both are good for you and your family.

In the current real estate market, less is more. Cleaning and staging are way better than a new kitchen. But can you make your kitchen look better? Sure you can. Clean, try some new paint, and put away most of the stuff on the counters. Do NOT spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new kitchen unless you plan to stay and enjoy it.

Any serious buyer is likely to open any door, drawer or cabinet in your house. An inspector may also. You need to be ready for this kind of scrutiny.

But getting houses ready for resale is a matter of cleaning and polishing more than actual remodeling. Sure, it’s not fun but it is not really expensive and it’s doable.

The other issue to sell home now you have to address is that you need to get the word out. Many real estate pros are cutting back on advertising. Your home could linger on the market forever if you don’t work to get the word out to potential buyers. It is much more effective than any remodel for getting your house sold.

Another good way to sell home now is to attract a buyer by offering owner financing. Many potential buyers can’t pass the new very stringent rules for financing. Or your buyer may be self employed and keeping to an aggressive tax strategy. These people could be good candidates to buy your home. You must still check a buyer’s credit and background to avoid difficulties. After the sale and a good payment history from your client you will have a marketable financial instrument you can sell to a note buyer. For some homeowners who need to avoid capital gains taxes it might actually be best to delay the gain for tax purposes. Everyone is different, but do what’s best for you.

If you have a good product and let people know you can sell home now. Tidy things up instead of doing expensive remodeling.

 

 

 

 

Other Site Pages for Sell Home Now

Contact Privacy Policy Sitemap

This Sell Home Now website is a Copyright 2008 U.S. Funding Solutions, Inc.