How to Sell Your House in a Slow Market

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By BellaCasa
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How To Make Your Home Stand Out In The Crowd

In this slow housing market, it is very difficult to sell a home, especially when you are competing against foreclosed homes that are selling for record low prices.

But there are some things that you can (must) do to help your home stand out in the crowd, here are some tips to help you sell your home in a buyer's market:

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Open Mind
Realistic Goals
Digital Camera
Internet
Blog
Patience

Step 1

Clutter Is Not A Good First Impression

The first thing you have to do is declutter your home and give it a good cleaning, from top to bottom. This could take a few days to an entire month or more, depending on how long you have lived in your home and what your schedule is like. Put everything you will use later in storage. Have a garage sale for everything else or donate it.
Step 2

Clean, Stylish Rooms Help The Sale

Now that your home is neat and clean, take a look around. Does it need any painting? How do the floors look? Do you need to replace the worn out carpet or linoleum? What shape are the kitchen and baths in? Could new faucets help spruce them up?

Browse online sites like HGTV's Rate My Space and Realtor.com and see what the new home decor trends are. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get an updated look, but you may have to spend some money. Make sure to do your research and spend it wisely for the market that you are in.
Step 3

A welcoming entryway is a must

Time to go outside. Make sure your front porch is clean and in good repair. Same goes for your front door. Does it need a fresh coat of paint? A wreath? Make sure to put a fresh pot of flowers by the front door. If it is the middle of winter, get an evergreen topiary and put it in a fancy pot. In early spring, you can go with cold-hardy pansies. In the summer, your choices are limit-less and then in the Fall, go with a nice pot of mums.
Step 4

Your home is ready for the market, so now what? You have to decide whether or not you will try to sell your home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) or list it with a Realtor. Do your research on both strategies and then when you decide which way you want to go, research even further. And just make sure that if you do go with a Realtor, to go with a seasoned one...now is not really the time to list your home with your aunt's neighbor's best friend's son-in-law. You need someone who knows how to sell and advertise a home in a tough market.
Step 5

Price Your Home To Sell

Now comes the hardest part...pricing your home. In the tough economy that we are in, you are going to have to set your emotions aside and price your home competitively -- very competitively. If you price your home too high, no one will even come to look at it, there's just too much competition out there. So price it for the market that we are in and then see what happens in the first week or so. If you are not getting any traffic, you may have to lower your price even more. I know no one wants to hear that, but it is just the reality of the housing market that we are in, unfortunately.
Step 6

Blogspot.com

Your home is on the market now. Besides keeping it clean and tidy, what can you do?

Start a blog for your home! Just set up a free blog on Blogspot.com, you don't need to spend any money on this project at all. Add some pictures to your blog and detailed descriptions of your home, neighborhood, schools, community and anything else that you can think of. You can even get the whole family in on it, make it fun!

Now that your blog is done, what do you do? Send it to everyone you know, just spam the heck out of all of your neighbors, friends and family with it and ask them to send it to everyone that they know, too. Post it to your Facebook, MySpace and twitter profiles. And if you have a Realtor, make sure to send it to him or her as well.
Step 7

Your home is being marketed and really now the waiting begins. And I know that's the hardest part. I can't guarantee that all of these tips will sell your house, especially in the tough economic times that we are in, but your home will be ahead of the crowd and so it certainly will have a pretty good chance. Keep studying your local housing market and make tweaks where necessary. Best of luck!

Comments

cheshirecat said

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on 6/19/2009 The blogspot suggestion is great idea. I have posted my house's pictures on Flickr with a link for the realtors. Will now add a blogspot that will allow more commentary for sure.