Ask just about any seller of a home available currently in the Portland Oregon housing market, things are tough! It use to be 2-3 showings a weeks was average. Now, if you get that many in a month you’re lucky!
So how does a seller get leverage and move closer to that offer and sale? In addition to the standard items like “price it right” from the beginning, and make sure your Realtor has a comprehensive Marketing Plan, here are a number of important factors to consider:
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Recognize the fact that every market is different. The state you live in, town or even neighborhood could see homes selling at the same pace as todays national averages, or it could be bucking that trend entirely. Real estate markets are always local. In any given town there can be neighborhoods where you can’t seem to give your home away and there can be others where homes still sell as fact as they come on the market. Talk to a good real estate Broker as well as doing some research on your own.
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Get your home inspected. The idea here is to be different, to be creative and to be proactive. When you do get an offer, the potential buyer will be doing a home inspection anyway so what ever is discovered will come up there anyway. When you know the issues with your home early in the process, you can fix them and as a result make it clear to any interested buy of your home that in fact, this is really a great home! When there are so many homes on the market like there are today in the Portland Oregon market, any leverage you can give yourself is good leverage!
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Shape up before marketing. A buyer’s market means you have competition. You want to have your best foot forward and make certian you are the prettiest girl at the dance so you get picked. If your home isn’t appealing and in good repair, potential buyers won’t even stop. Sometimes a seller will feel it’s alright to skip this step, feeling “we’ll simply take less”, but if your home is not appealing, you may not even get the opportunity to negotiate. Simple ways to make your home stand out:
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New paint. Paint the whole house if it needs it or simply just the trim, shutters or doors. You’re looking for a fresh look here.
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A clean entryway. Sweep or pressure wash the front walk or porch. Polish the outdoor metal work, wash windows, replace burned out bulds and add fresh, colorful flowers.
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Landscape. Sharp edges on your grass, new bright red bark, beautiful flower beds, all make a huge difference!.
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Devise a marketing plan. Obviously I’m a strong advocate of using an experienced, professional Realtor to market your important asset. In a sellers market, it can be easier to save the expense of paying a commission. But in a buyer’s market, or any rapidly changing market it can be a big help having a little professional expertise to price, market and sell your property. Don’t forget, potential buyers may think that if there is no agent involved, the price should already be 6% less. Both thebuyer and seller can’t save the same 6%.
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Set a valid price. In a soft market, the rules change. Don’t overprice your home 10-20% thinking you are leaving room to negotiate. That strategy is never a good idea but in todays market it’s fatal. Being too high will simply eliminate your showings, and in todays market, its important to get all the showings you can. I tell my sellers that what we want is an offer! Even if it real low, it’s better to have an offer we can say NO to rather than no offer at all. Picking a price point is important. If your home is worth $300,000 be very carful if you want to price it at $310,000, thinking you have negotiating room. By doing this you are possibly eliminating all of the people doing computer searches up to $300,000. Instead, price it at $299,900 and be ok seeing an offer at $270,000. Remember, this is something you can counter or say “no” altogether. The idea here is to get in the game!
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Understand your price. While you don’t want to undervalue your home, many sellers today will not see the kinds of prices thier neighbors did in 2005 and 2006. If you have your heart set on a price and find out that homes aren’t selling for that, you may simply need to change your mind and simply not sell right now.
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Get rid of junk. Simply clear out the clutter. Buyers are much more fussy today and it easy to see why. There are simply a lot of homes out there for them to choose from. You’re moving anyway. This is a good time for that garage sale, or maybe even simply throwing things out. Maybe you shoupld rent a POD or storage locker. Buyers look for space and light. Make your home look like a show piece and you will be surprised at the result!
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Stay on top of the market. Be aware of changes in the market. Know what’s going on in the world of mortgages and finance rates. Keep your eye on your comps no less than monthly and don’t be left behind. A good Broker representing you will provide this information, and remember, a good broker can’t make the market, they can only interpret the market
Steve,
Clearly, the real estate market is rough most places in the US. Fortunately, I’m in the land business which tends to have less ups and downs. But still I and others in my specialty have seen an obvious slow down in the last 6 months. I wish I could be optimistic too, but I think the impact of oil prices will impact the economy more than we have seen so far. My hope are that people will go to tangible investments like real estate and that we can provide a safe haven.
How is the market in Portland now? Here in Seattle it has surely softened a bit. Now if only we had cash…it is definitely a buyers market!
Have to give a thumbs up to your recommendation on getting rid of junk. We did just that, but used Door to Door storage pods. We looked at PODS too, but it was too expensive. Either way, the pods made cleaning up the property so much easier.
Portlands market is still in poor shape, I’m sure much like Seattle’s. With Intel preparing to shed more than 1,000 people here, and Microsoft preparing to let go large numbers up there, it makes it difficult to predict a bottom, so I don’t. Inventory of available homes here is in the 14 mont range and until it get down below 8, the volitility will continue.
Thanks for looking over my blog.