How to Quickly Sell Your House in a Slow Market

The housing crisis is sweeping through our nation, with a record number of people losing their homes to foreclosure. If you need to sell your house, here are the steps to help you do it quickly and still get a good price for it.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet access
• Trustworthy real estate agent

1. Don't overprice your house. Your house is not worth what it was this time last year. A couple of years ago, especially in the Phoenix area, homes remained on the market for less than one month and sold at exorbitant prices. One house could sell for $200,000 in a neighborhood while another right around the corner sold for $240,000. Times have changed.
2. Round up your sales price. Determine your sales price so it stands out in Internet searches. Search engines create categories usually every $25,000 or $50,000. Offering your property for $250,000 instead of $251,000 will generate an additional 7.1 percent number of visitors.
3. Start on Friday. The day when you will first show your house is important. A study conducted by Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm, has concluded that starting to show a house for sale on a Friday results in a 7.7 percent increase in the number of visitors. The same study has shown the worst day to start showing a house is on Thursday.
4. Use the Internet. Post an ad on Craigslist. You will increase your visitors by 6 percent.
5. Be there when potential buyers visit your house. Empty homes have shown a tendency to have to lower their initial sales price.
6. Wait before listing your home until your are sure the foreclosed homes in your area have been off the market. A foreclosed property reduces the value of a neighborhood, lowering the value of a home about to be listed by an average of $5,000. A foreclosed property affects the price of the other properties in the neighborhood, but with the greater number of foreclosed homes, it has become a challenge to find areas where no homes are being sold at auction.

Tips & Warnings

• Motivated sellers make the transaction a lot smoother, since they are willing to accept offers and are more flexible in non-essential matters.