How do you sell a house fast in a slow real estate market?
hakrjak asked:
I’ve got a great one listed right now in Colorado Springs, which I have completely fixed and am ready to flip. All new stainless appliances, all new ceramic tile, new bathroom with pedistal sink & new pegasus toilet, over $10,000 in landscaping done to the outside — But it’s been 3 months and only a few showings. I’ve recently added a free Plasma TV or a $2000 furniture gift card to the MLS, if I get a full priced offer at $125k. Any other bright ideas to move this property quick? More details on it at WWW.COFLIPPER.COM
The comp nearby that sold for $88k was a trashed VA foreclosure. The house next door that was fixed to the level of mine sold for $125.1k last year in 6 days and appraised just fine.
Lower the price.
remodel and make sure it is in a friendly neighborhood. lower the price. selling at colorado springs should not be a problem, its beautiful there.
For one target middle income families. You can fix crap houses all you want but in my opinion noone will buy them if they dont target the largest consumer base. I think a middle income house is about 200k these days. Next sell it below market value. Ask yourself, how does that home compete with what else is springing up in the area. Usually flipping homes cannot be done successfully without a genuinely appealing layout, has to be located in a good area not too far from highways and commerse, near schools, etc… Hopefully, you didn’t just say to yourself, well Colorado Springs has been seeing some good appreciation I can flip any old house here and make a quick profit. Ironically, it may cost you more in the long haul if you dont get it sold. In the very worst case scenario I would put it up for Lease-Option on a 2 year contract. Good luck.
Unfortunately in a slow real estate market you are going to have a hard time selling your home for the price you want for it. The best chance you have to sell fast is as mentioned above, lower your price. How are you advertising the home? You may want to talk with your Realtor and demand more out of them if you have only had a few showings thus far. Offer to pay closing costs, up to a specified amount (approximately 2k or so) as well if you get your full price that you are asking. This way you are offering a 2k furniture card and a 2k credit towards closing costs, which really seems like a lot to the ordinary person, however, in essence you are only losing 4k from your asking price, which is very reasonable and not very much in the grand scheme of things. Best of luck to you.
In Texas we had very tough markets in the early 1990’s. Lots of people tried free items or vacations or such. None of that really helps- I don’t think agent bonuses help either.
It sounds like you ahve done everything to make the house show very well. You have to adjust the price.
Lower the price. There’s just too much inventory laying around for anyone to pay full price for anything, unless it was incredibly unique (and, frankly, stainess steel appliances and pedestal sinks hardly qualify as unique.) Sounds like you may have put a little too much into the landscaping for a flip in this market, unless it was a real trashdump to begin with.
Last year’s comp is interesting, but basically — it’s old news. What has sold in the last 3 months? The last 6? When they say the real estate market has slowed — they aren’t kidding, ok?
stage it, forget the plasma and the furniture gift card, make it look ready to move in. Go to outlet stores and buy furniture and accessories, or rent some furniture, it doesn’t have to be a whole lot. People will not buy a house unless they can imagine themselves living in it, and trust me people don’t have much imagination.
Lower the price AND up the commission to the selling agent.
In a slow market, YOU want to have the most attractive deal, so that anyone who is looking in your price range, would find yours the most attractive deal, and the real estate agents will push your property, cuz they will make mo’ money.
The reality is that there may be no buyers in your price range.
I don’t have access ot CO MLS, but this is a TINY house, less then 800 sq feet. My bedroom is bigger.
You do realize that a neighbor recently sold the same size house for 88k? I think you are over priced by at least 20k.
You may have over improved for the neighborhood. As a flipper you should know better. The people in your price range can by in a safer and nicer neighborhood, so they will.
Also, there is NO WAY you can get it appraised that much more then the neighbor. This will prevent anyone from being able to get a loan for the house, the banks will not agree to mortgage it over the value.
The only way you can dump this baby is to lower the price to what the neighborhood buyers can afford.