The Driving Force: Condition
I was involved in a round table discussion this past week about Selling in Today's Market. When I first thought about talking about the successful sale of a home, alot of memories and horror stories could be told. There's the listing where the seller had the home staged by someone they knew but the stager made the house look disfunctional and when that happens, not one buyer can see beyond the thought of "what in the world happened here?!" Or the home where there was no heat source for the bedroom in the basement. Missing duct openings for central air? Just poke holes in your ductwork - that seems to work. Proper drainage that meets code in the basement or a furnace that ticks and the sellers would turn up the heat high enough so that the furnace would be off during showings and the 'tick' wouldn't be heard! I showed a house where the sellers were getting ready to move and had all the boxes in the middle of the room. I thought it was an organized way of doing things until I moved the boxes only to find out the house had structural problems and the boxes were there to cover the dip in the floor! The topper, I would say would be the silent killer - a hot water tank with no flue. Carbon Monoxide. Nothing!
These are things that can make or break a sale. In today's marketplace, the typical home needs the WOW factor in order to draw attention to itself. You are competing against your own brother! And, I would want to close before my brother!
Are you willing to get your house organized and eliminate any deal breakers like what I mentioned above? If you are, then you are smart and will be successful in the sale of your home, well with the exception of price. That has alot to do with it. The closer you are to your SP, the faster you will close.
Your home needs internet exposure and local exposure. If you Googled your agents or Realtors name, would you find them? If you found them, how many times does their name appear on the internet? Do their listings appear on the internet? Not just on the company website but anywhere else? Where do the calls go to? A floor person who hasn't seen your property? I just checked the stats for my listings and the amount of hits in the last year have been lower than the norm. In the last 30 days, the stats have tripled and hence, it is telling me that the buyers are out there looking on the internet. Are you visible? Is your house in order?
The driving force is condition but you must also have exposure.
Until next time,
Barb Van Stensel