Selling Your Home in a Slow Market

Luke Mullins a staff writer with US News & World Report contacted me pointing out an article he wrote that he thought my readers may be interested in 5 Tips for Selling a House in a Slow Market. While I don't necessarily agree with all of his points, as they pertain to the Long Beach Real Estate market, it is a relatively acccurate depiction of some of the items sellers need to pay attention to when placing their homes for sale.

His article covers 5 tips:

Making repairs
Pricing
Hire an experienced Realtor
Make showings easy
Counter "All" offers

While these are all very valid points just bringing your price down below what it would have "fetched" a couple of years ago is not enough. Determining today's market value and offering a price that a buyer will want to pay is more the order of the day. Setting an asking price above market value will not just drive potential buyers away, it will set the stage for the seller for ˜chasing the market down, which is the kiss of death in todays real estate market. Agents who accept overpriced listings do so for the residual traffic the listing will provide; the buyer phone calls generated by the sign, open houses, advertising, etc... If they dont know that overpriced listings wont sell then they are just not experienced enough to price or sell your homes.

While hiring an experienced agent is vitally important, the stats as Luke has them explained dont take into account a lot of niche market information. Short sales and luxury homes take a long time to sell. The banks are extremely backed up, short sales take many months to process and luxury homes can sit on the market for very long periods of time. Homes in less than stellar condition often dont sell at all. It is much more important to make sure the Realtor you choose has an extensive internet marketing campaign that will insure your home top exposure to the 80% of buyers shopping for their next homes online.

I wrote a similar article recently Selling Your Long Beach Homes and Condos - 8 Deadly Mistakes which is a bit more in depth and is a good read before placing your Long Beach Homes for sale.