The real estate market has typically been touted as a stable field where your investment will grow slowly, but surely, over time.
And then the 21st century came and everything went nuts.
The real estate market from the year 2000 through 2010 is shaping up to be a schizophrenic one.
The first five years saw unprecedented growth and wealth building through home appreciation.
Unfortunately, that bubble could not be kept inflated and we are seeing the results - a boomerang of bad news.
Bad mortgages, huge foreclosure rates, credit crunches.
It is all a bit too much.
So, can you sell your property in this real estate market? Of course.
The question, however, is how far are you willing to go to get the job done? Throwing up a sign and listing it in the local MLS and online isn't going to be enough.
This brings us to the secret to enticing buyers in a slow market - incentives.
Incentives are simply add-ons that strike an emotional response in a potential buyer that leads them to a certain action.
In your situation, that action is to make an offer on your home.
To get this response, you have to make it clear to them that they are getting both a home and something in addition that no other seller in your area is offering.
Most homeowners make mistakes when incentivizing their homes for sale.
They focus on the wrong types of emotional items.
Two free airline tickets to Hawaii sound great, but think it through.
What homebuyer has time to go to Hawaii? They are sweating their new mortgage! The same goes for offer cars and the like.
They sound good at first glance, but not when thought through.
A far better incentive strategy is to go for the pocketbook.
There are plenty of buyers in the real estate market now, but they have a problem.
Money is tight.
Lenders are overreacting to the subprime mess and squeezing buyers by demanding larger down payments.
This means buyers are usually suffering cash flow problems after purchasing a home.
Anything you can do to alleviate that problem makes your home enticing.
So, what type of incentives should you offer? Be as creative as you can.
Here are some examples.
Agree to pay the utilities for a year.
Agree to pay all closing costs.
Offer to buy down the interest rate of the buyer's mortgage by paying a flat sum to the lender at closing.
How about agreeing to pay for all moving costs? A great strategy is to offer to pre-pay the first year of property taxes.
As you can see, all of these incentives go to the buyer's bottom line.
As long as you focus on this, you can come up with incentives that make your home stand out from those around you which is the secret to selling it in a cold market.
And then the 21st century came and everything went nuts.
The real estate market from the year 2000 through 2010 is shaping up to be a schizophrenic one.
The first five years saw unprecedented growth and wealth building through home appreciation.
Unfortunately, that bubble could not be kept inflated and we are seeing the results - a boomerang of bad news.
Bad mortgages, huge foreclosure rates, credit crunches.
It is all a bit too much.
So, can you sell your property in this real estate market? Of course.
The question, however, is how far are you willing to go to get the job done? Throwing up a sign and listing it in the local MLS and online isn't going to be enough.
This brings us to the secret to enticing buyers in a slow market - incentives.
Incentives are simply add-ons that strike an emotional response in a potential buyer that leads them to a certain action.
In your situation, that action is to make an offer on your home.
To get this response, you have to make it clear to them that they are getting both a home and something in addition that no other seller in your area is offering.
Most homeowners make mistakes when incentivizing their homes for sale.
They focus on the wrong types of emotional items.
Two free airline tickets to Hawaii sound great, but think it through.
What homebuyer has time to go to Hawaii? They are sweating their new mortgage! The same goes for offer cars and the like.
They sound good at first glance, but not when thought through.
A far better incentive strategy is to go for the pocketbook.
There are plenty of buyers in the real estate market now, but they have a problem.
Money is tight.
Lenders are overreacting to the subprime mess and squeezing buyers by demanding larger down payments.
This means buyers are usually suffering cash flow problems after purchasing a home.
Anything you can do to alleviate that problem makes your home enticing.
So, what type of incentives should you offer? Be as creative as you can.
Here are some examples.
Agree to pay the utilities for a year.
Agree to pay all closing costs.
Offer to buy down the interest rate of the buyer's mortgage by paying a flat sum to the lender at closing.
How about agreeing to pay for all moving costs? A great strategy is to offer to pre-pay the first year of property taxes.
As you can see, all of these incentives go to the buyer's bottom line.
As long as you focus on this, you can come up with incentives that make your home stand out from those around you which is the secret to selling it in a cold market.