How To Sell Your Home in This Tough Market

Often times, trying to sell a house today has become as difficult as trying to dump a gas guzzling Chevy Suburban in a four bucks a gallon gas market. And it doesn't have to be.

As I have for most mornings for the past forty-three years, I check our multiple listing service (MLS) to see which houses have sold and which ones have seen their Realtor listing expire without a sale. Some that sold were on the market for just a few days. Some that didn't sat there untouched for six months, a year, and sometimes even longer.

I look at the expired listings and often feel my head shaking in sorrow for the owner and disbelief for the agent. It doesn't seem to occur to either of them that no one has the magic power to get a prospect to buy what doesn't appeal to him. And when you've had, say, twenty people look at your house without a sale, or you have no people looking at all, more often than not it's a direct result of the marketing.

But frequently, both the owner and the agent hold pat, figuring that someone will come along and mold themselves so as to accept the seller and agent's Pied Piper's tune. Maybe that happens from time to time, but why gamble that it's going to happen for you?

If I were listing your home for sale in today's market, here's what I'd insist you do:

1. Price the home within the lower quadrant of those it will be competing against. None of this, "We can always come down" business.
2. Have the home professionally staged by a home stager with a good reputation; and I'd go so far as to say to include their service of bringing in additional pieces of furniture, curtains, vases and what-nots that they recommend.
3. Spend at least $500 spiffing up the front yard landscaping, with a good portion of that budget dedicated to appropriate flowering plants.
4. If it has not sold by the third week, begin cutting the price by 0.5% per week until it does.

Finally, if your home hasn't sold within two months, re-evaluate the expertise and services that your professional salesperson and his agency have provided you. If you get a funny feeling in your stomach, fire them and begin interviewing for another listing agent.