Comments on: Tips for Selling a Home in a Down Market

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By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:35:35 +0000

I sold my house last year in 9 days. One thing not mentioned in the post? Make the home smell like fresh baked goods. This has been shown to better your chances of a sale, especially with male home buyers. I kept about 10 of those pilsbury refrigerated rolls of cinnamon rolls in my fridge so I could bake them and place them on a wooden cutting board with a new kitchen towel right before the showings. A few of the people who came by actually ate them! Also, I would not consider an open house. I feel it is more for the agent’s sake than for the sake of selling the home.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:11:01 +0000

We sold our home last year in 5 days for just a couple thousand less than our asking price (BUT $20,000 more than we paid for it 3 years ago!). The house was very carefully priced by our realtor to be competitive for the market. Details are definitely very important. We didn’t re-paint the house, but touched up anything that needed it, and the whole house was very clean. The carpets were all cleaned. One overlooked area is light fixtures. Updated light fixtures in dining rooms and bathrooms and updated ceiling fans make a huge difference. We also re-grouted our tiled kitchen counters, which made them look brand new again. Definitely spruce up the yard as much as possible. We bought a water fountain to place by the front door, and the woman who bought our house fell in love with that fountain!

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[...] Tips for Selling a Home in a Down Market [...]

By: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:55:30 +0000

My MIL’s best friend is a real estate agent. She’s told us that open houses never sell a house…they just get her name out there and it lets your neighbors check out your place.

When we bought our home, price and general shape of the house was all we cared about. If you price your home well and it’s not falling apart, it should sell…that’s really all we looked at.

By: beth

beth — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:58:54 +0000

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:29:46 +0000

Great points.. The points I agree with the most? Being realistic about price, and getting a good realtor or someone who can aggresively market your place. This is not a time to do your cousin eddie a favor by letting him sell your house.. This is the time to bring in the big guns and let them do what they do best.

By: ConsumerMiser

ConsumerMiser — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:00:20 +0000

I tend to agree with Neal’s idea. If you can rent your house instead of selling in this market, then do it. Of course, I would need a meaningful positive cash flow above the mortgage to make it worth it or I might consider cutting my losses and selling even in this market. I am bullish, the market will turn around. The question is whether you can and are willing to wait out the market for better days from the seller’s perspective. On the flip side, if you are in a position to buy, now is a great time!

By: Neal@Wealth Pilgrim

Neal@Wealth Pilgrim — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:48:10 +0000

This is great advice of course. Having said that, if you really need to sell,,,,,ask yourself why.

Maybe you can rent the house or even take in renters? I ain’t selling my home in this market no matter what.