You’re trying to sell your home, but there’s one tiny problem. Most of your neighborhood is dominated by short sales and foreclosures. This isn’t the neighborhood you moved into, but it’s the one you inherited. Here’s how to get yourself out of it with your bank account intact.
Advertise Your Advantages
You’ve got a lot of advantages that foreclosure homes and short sales don’t have. For starters, your title is clean and uncomplicated. If you’re current on all of your taxes, and you’ve maintained the home well, you’ve got a major advantage over the other homes in your neighborhood.
Most foreclosure homes are a wreck. Sure, they may be selling at a 35 percent discount, but they’re not always good deals after taking into consideration all the repairs that need to be done. This is where you can do some homework to price your house intelligently. If you research the other homes around you and figure out roughly what kind of repairs they need (you could even inquire with the seller’s real estate agent), you’ll have a better idea about how to price your own home so that it looks attractive.
A short seller may not be able to fix the home because he’s out of money and relying on the bank to help him sell. Buyers may also run into title problems with a foreclosure or short sale.
Play up the fact that your price is cheaper after all of the repairs that the buyer will have to do on the other homes.
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Do Comparables Before Pricing
A “comp” is a way to assess what other homes in the area are selling for. If you’re way off in your listing price, your chances of selling your home go down dramatically. Buyers are pretty much in control in this market.
Even a Clark Short Sales Specialist can’t increase the selling price of his short sale clients beyond what the market will bear. Keep this in mind when setting the listing price. You might be more flexible in what you can list your home for, but at the end of the day the market decides what your house is worth.
Let’s say that all of the homes within a 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile radius of your home are selling for roughly $250,000. This is about what your house is worth. It doesn’t mean that this is exactly what you’ll get though. Some homes situated across the street from each other in Sacramento, for example, have $100,000 price variations.
Consider Pricing Below The FMV
No one likes taking a loss on their house. However, you might be forced into this position if you want to sell quickly. You can still make money if you sell below the fair market value, but you’ll not make as much as you’d hoped.
It all boils down to how motivated you are to sell. If you take a 10 percent loss on the home, but you still walk away with $15,000 profit, that’s still a win at the end of the day.
Lisa Anders is a real estate consultant who has assisted many homeowners in time of financial distress. An avid blogger, she enjoys giving people helpful information. Look for her enlightening articles on real estate, investing and finance blogs.