SUCCESS STORY – HOUSES DO SELL QUICKLY!

If you work with the market and not against it you can sell your house quickly in today’s market.

You’ll note that one of the listings in my Featured Listings is marked SOLD.  This home was put on the market on 6/11/08.  We had a deposit on 6/16/08 and it is closing today – 7/28/2008.   That’s 40 days from listing to closing.

It’s not that this home was some spectacular, lavish property that buyers drooled over.  It’s not that it was a fixer-upper priced well below the market waiting for someone who is looking to put some “sweat-equity” into it.

It’s a nice modest home in good condition. The reason it sold so quickly is that the client put his faith in his Realtor. He listened to the advice I gave him about market positioning and the other components of my plan.

We did not “give the house away”.  We priced it exactly where it should be in today’s market.

If you’re a regular reader here, you’ve seen me say many times that you have two choices when putting your home on the market.  You can put house in the group of homes that sell – or the group of homes that do not sell.

It’s totally your choice:

Do you want to list your house or do you want to sell your house?

Should you pay for a home inspection prior to putting your house on the market?

Yes!

I could end this article there but since I love to hear myself type, I’ll elaborate a little more.

Remember  – when you try to sell your house, you have only one goal — To sell your house.

Anything that you can do to differentiate yours from the others is a good thing.

Think about it – pretend you are looking for houses.

Your Realtor takes you to 2 similar houses in approximately the same neighborhood.  When you walk in to each house, the kitchen counter has a little rack with marketing materials.  There are glossy brochures with pictures, a “listing” sheet showing all the specs of the house, a sheet from a lender showing the monthly payments on the house if you were to pay the list price and put 10% down and a few other informative pieces.

In one of the houses, you see a report from a certified building inspector that is dated within the last month. The other house does not have this.

You take a copy and decide to read it later on.

When you get home that evening you and your significant other are reviewing all the houses you looked at that day.  You comment on how that one house had the inspection report.  You scan through it.  It says that the house is in good condition. Heating system checks out, cooling system is OK, etc.  There was one problem noted. The dishwasher did not start easily, unless the inspector lifted the door up and pushed hard on one corner to lock it in place.  Hmmmm,  that doesn’t sound too good, does it?

Wait – stapled to the last page of the inspection sticker is a bill from an appliance repair shop for $125.00 to replace one of the hinges on the dishwasher door.  WOW!  This homeowner is making sure that the house is in good shape to sell.

OK  – which house is likely to get more serious consideration from you?

No guarantee that it will sell, of course, but surely you can see how this house has a “leg up” on the other one.

So should you spend the money to do this – absolutely! It will differentiate your house from the others.

Don’t forget, of course, to fix the things that need fixing.