Your REALTOR®’s marketing
efforts and considerations will include
advertising, showing the property, how long the
house has been on the market and whether you're
buying another home. Your home should be listed,
whenever possible, through a Multiple Listing
Service (MLS).
Advertising and
Promotion
Properties are commonly advertised through
real estate agent Web sites, Internet home
search/listing services, classified advertising
and real estate guides. Promotion efforts
through office and MLS tours are a good way of
getting other buyer agents to view your home and
to promote it to the buyers they are working
with.
Even with all these
advertising avenues, " For Sale" signs on front
lawns are still remarkably effective. Many
REALTORS® promote their Web sites on the sign
and use brochure boxes with the signs to market
the property. When appropriate, and with your
permission, your REALTOR® may send a mailing
about your property to neighbors. Sometimes one
of them has a friend or relative who always
wanted to live near them. You never know how far
reaching the benefits of word-of-mouth
advertising by friends, relatives and neighbors
can be.
Showings and Open
Houses
To prepare your home for viewing, make it as
bright, clean, cheerful and serene as possible.
Always look at your home from the buyer's point
of view. Your REALTOR® will probably find a
tactful way to suggest that you be absent while
the house is being shown to prospective buyers,
because your presence will inhibit their actions
and conversations. They won’t feel free to open
closets and cabinets, test out the plumbing and
discuss their observations objectively as they
walk through the house. It goes without saying
that your children and pets should not be on the
premises either.
If your REALTOR® has
scheduled an open house, you may want to notify
the neighbors, and assure them that they'll be
welcome. They'll jump at the chance to poke
around in your house, and sometimes they can
turn up a buyer among their friends.
Quick tips for showings
and open houses:
-
Clean or replace dirty
or worn carpets.
-
Open all curtains and
blinds.
-
Replace any burned out
light bulbs and turn on all lights.
-
Clear all clutter.
-
Clear all countertops.
-
Wash and put away any
dirty dishes.
-
Set the dining room or
kitchen table if you have particularly nice
linen or china.
-
Simmer a few drops of
vanilla on the stove.
-
Put on soft music.
-
Burn wood in the
fireplace on cold days, otherwise, clean the
fireplace.
-
Put fresh towels in the
bathroom.
-
Take any laundry out of
the washer and dryer.
-
Leave the house so your
REALTOR® is free to deal with prospective
buyers in a professional manner.
-
Put pets in cages or
take them to a neighbor.
-
How Long Has Your House
Been on the Market?
-
Professional appraisers
sum up their entire body of knowledge in three
words: " Buyers make value." Your home is
worth as much as a buyer will pay for it.
If your home has been on
the market for months, it’s a clear message that
the property may not be worth what you're asking
for it. This is particularly true if there
haven't been many prospects coming to see it.
What you do at that point depends on whether you
really need to sell, and whether you're working
with a time limit.
If you're not really
motivated to move soon, you can always wait -
years if necessary - and hope inflation will
catch up with the price you want. The problem is
that in that time, your home begins to feel
shopworn. Buyers become suspicious of a house
that's been for sale for a long time.
If you really do need to
sell, with your REALTOR® discuss a schedule for
gradually dropping your price until you find a
level that attracts buyers. There's no point in
saying, " We simply can't sell our house."
Anything will sell if the price is right.
If You’re Buying
Another Home
You may wonder what will happen when you're
selling one home and buying another – how will
all the details work out? This is a common
situation and REALTORS®, lawyers, and title and
escrow companies have plenty of experience in
arranging contracts and loans so that the two
transactions dovetail smoothly.
And should you sell your
home first then buy or buy first then sell?
Ideally, it’s best to find a home you like and
make an offer subject to selling your current
home. This generally works in a normal market.
However, in a “hot” market most sellers will not
accept a “subject to sale” offer. In this case
you need to sell your home first and then buy a
new home in the interim period between selling
and vacating your house.
If you find that you need
to buy the next house before you've received the
proceeds from the present one, lending
institutions can sometimes make you a short-term
" bridge" loan to tide you over between the two
transactions. Make sure you fully understand the
exposure and emotional investment before
proceeding with this type of loan.
