Looking for real estate advice

dmd77
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:20:35 +0000

I’ve recently spent a lot of time looking at houses. Here’s what I’m seeing: the houses that have been on the market a while feel discouraged. The heat is turned down, the staging items (like the silk flowers) are dusty, and the owners won’t negotiate. (We made an offer on a house that has now been on the market–empty–for almost two years. The owner is sure his house is worth that 10% more. Nope, not in my opinon. Meanwhile, his house is cold and it smells bad, like mildew.)

So here’s what I’d do. Don’t take your house off the market, but have a long and cynical look at the price and plan to reduce it. Don’t reduce by inches, but with a bang.

Before you do that, have the place cleaned, top-to-bottom, put out fresh flowers, and see if there’s more cleaning/decluttering/etc. that you can do. Change your description so that it says “serious seller” or “seller will take back contract” (if that’s true).

Plan a trip out to look at your competition and see what they’re doing.

Add to your in-house marketing. Have school newsletters, restaurant menus, whatever you like best about your neighborhood. Have those minor repairs done and have a current inspection report right there with the fancy flyers. You want to make it easy for the buyers to buy your house.