Selling a house in a buyer’s market
My wife had to sell the house she kept for her mom in one of the toughest real estate markets in the nation. We learned through experience several techniques to sell a house in a buyer’s market:
- Get the best real estate agent you can find, and pay her extra if you need to. A detail oriented, hard working agent will track down every reasonable lead to get her well-deserved commission. In our case, she found another real estate agent who bought it for his daughter. He understood he was getting a bargain: every major system in the house had been upgraded. Personal referrals are an excellent way to find a good real estate agent.
- Paint the house inside and out if it needs it. Not a single offer appeared until we were able to line up someone to paint the inside (the outside had been painted a couple of years earlier). This can make a old or tired house appear almost new.
- Price appropriately. Sites like zillow.com can give you an idea what your house is worth. If it’s a buyer’s market, nothing will get attention like a decent price, which may not as high as a few years ago. In our case we were probably asking a bit too much, but we signalled through our agent that we were ready to bargain. And we did.
