Stop Dreaming And Sell Your Home Now Don Glasgow article on Foreclosure
Any home will sell, given enough time. How much time do you
have?
One of the most frustrating things about selling a home, condo,
townhouse during a slow market is trying to price it so that it
sells in the amount of time the owner wants to sell it in.
You don’t want price your property so high that it doesn’t
sell.
Of course you don’t want to price it so low that you
unknowingly give money away to your buyer.
This is a fine line that a property seller ends up walking.
Here is what I suggest a home seller do to find the best sales
price for their home given the amount of time that they have to
sell:
• Get Three CMA’s:
Call three real estate agents that have at least two years of
real estate sales experience. Tell them you are thinking of
selling your property and want to get a CMA (CMA: Comparative
Market Analysis). A CMA will be a written estimate of the value
of your property based on recently sold properties that are
similar to yours. Be sure and let the agents know that you are
talking to other real estate agents.
Between the three values you should be able to get a fairly
good idea of what your home might sell for.
Heads Up:
There may be other homes in your neighbor that are for sale.
Don’t confuse their asking prices for actual home values. Home
sellers can ask any price for their home. Values are figured
strictly by what similar homes have sold for.
Heads Up:
It is fairly likely that one of the agents may have set the CMA
value considerably higher than the other two. This may be due to
negligence on their part, but it is more likely that they are
“buying the listing”. They set the CMA price high in an effort
to get you to list with them. Later they will pressure you to
lower your price to where it should have been in the first
place. Of course by now they have wasted your time while you
waited for your over-priced home to sell. I have seen this over
and over again. This is a common ploy. Don’t get taken by this
deception.
• How long will it take to sell?
When you have figured out what seems to be a good asking price
for your home, you will have a good idea which agent you would
like to use to help get your home sold.
Ask your agent how long other homes like yours have taken to
sell. Let’s imagine that the average “days on the market” (Days
on the market: number of days a home takes to sell after it is
put up for sale) is 120 days. If you are not in a hurry this
may sound just right to you.
What if you need or want to sell faster than our 120 day
example? Let’s say you have a new job that starts in 90 days in
a new city. It usually takes 30 days to “close the sale” (close
the sale: sign the final documents transferring title to the
buyer), after your home “goes under contract” (goes under
contract: you have a buyer that wants to buy, has signed a
sales contract with you, and is in the process of getting a
loan). You realize that you need to find your buyer in no more
than 60 days after you put it up for sale.
You are going to have to ask your agent to give you an idea of
where to price your home so that it sells (goes under contract)
in 90 days. Hopefully they can come up with a fairly good idea
of the 90 day sales price.
What I might do, if I were your agent, is to figure out what
the highest selling price you could ask, so that you could sell
your home in one day. Then figure out the seven days selling
price, a 30 days selling price, and then a 90 days selling
price.
For example:
• Let’s say the 120 day sales price for your home is $275,000.
• Then given one day to sell your home, you might be able to
get $200,000 (30% below market value).
• Given a week you could probably sell your home for $225,000
(20% below market value).
• 30 days sales price: $240,000 (15% below market).
• And finally, 60 days sales price: $255,000 (8% below market
value).
• Priced at $255,000, your home will look like a bargain to a
home buyer, and you are more likely to get a faster sale.
In a slow market you have to be willing to lower your asking
price, maybe more than once in order to get your home sold in a
timely manner. Be prepared mentally for this possibility and
your home selling process will be smoother and faster.
