Jan 9, 2010
Home Selling Tips – the Info Buyers Need
You’ve heard the usual home selling tips. Clean the place up, get the help you need and price it right – all good advice. But what about the more direct part of the sales process: advertising, marketing and talking to prospective buyers. Do you know what to say in your advertisements, flyers and in person?
You should tell buyers almost everything. Of course don’t reveal your motivations, how low you’ll go on the price, or anything else that hurts your negotiating position. But tell them everything else they might want to know.
If you think about this for a moment, you’ll understand. Do you prefer shopping where the products have no prices on them? Of course not! And if you were looking at a list of vacation packages, you might pass over those that neglected to name the destination, right? It is no different in shopping for a house.
Of course, you may have noticed that real estate agents sometimes advertise homes with no price, or fail to say where a home is located. Why? Because the agent wants curious people to call. When a $130,000-buyer calls on an ad for a $250,000-home which listed no price, the agent hopes to sell him any house he can. If a buyer thinks an advertised home is in town, he can be steered to one that is.
In other words these are just tricks that help the agent. Of course the sellers of the homes advertised lose potential buyers, because many people like myself won’t waste time on misleading ads, or those that list no price. Usually there are enough other houses advertised with prices and decent information to look at.
The first of these home selling tips then, is that more information is better (except perhaps in expensive pay-by-the-word ads). With decent information, a buyer either knows you have something they might want, or they don’t waste your time. Essentially, they prequalify themselves for you. What information do they need then ?
Home Selling Tips – Information To Include When Selling
Always mention the price and terms (if any) in written information, as well as the location, style, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and school district. Look at newspapers and real estate guides from your area to see what things others are advertising. Try for as much information as you can fit in a given ad or listing.
Have additional information ready for interested buyers. You want to remove as much uncertainty as possible. If the buyer will need to replace the roofing in a year or two, for example, have a quote ready. A buyer might accept a poor roof – if he knows what he’s getting into. He’ll likely walk away if the cost of this is unknown. Nothing kills interest like uncertainty.
Of course, hiding problems can be illegal as well as unethical. It is better to either resolve them, or get quotes on what it will cost to resolve them. Once again, it is a matter of resolving uncertainty. A buyer is less frightened by the idea of paying $1,900 for new carpet than by the idea of paying an unknown amount for it.
All of this probably fits your own experience. You are more likely to buy a house or anything else when you have more information, right? You may even pay a little more for less uncertainty. Most buyers will, so why not put this home selling tip to use and have that information ready?
Watch the video related to home selling
Direct selling in this economic climate with companies like USANA.
Help answer the question about home selling
What tax obligations do I have in terms of selling my home in Canada and working in the US for a year or so?
I am selling my house and heard that I must pay a tax that I had not heard of before when my home in sold in Canada. I will be in the US for at least 1 year.
About Author
Copyright Steve Gillman. To see a photo of the house we bought for $17,500, and get a free Real Estate Investing Course, visit: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com
Declutter, depersonalize and clean. Have the place in market ready condition as much as possible, price appropriate for the market and implement the suggestions that his Realtor gives him.
thank you,,please watch my tutorials on how to sell on ebay
All great answers! No one mentioned if you short sale your house yo also get a 1099 from your bank for the difference. They make you claim tax on it as if it were income.
There is a revision on this law currently being voted on or something.
Great Video presentation
Thanks very much
If your permanent residence will be in the US, you will be leaving (emigrating from) Canada. Upon leaving Canada you will trigger a "deemed disposition" of all your assets in Canada. This may cause you to owe capital gains taxes.
See the CRA website below for more info.
Have you lived in it for at least 2 of the last 5 years? If so, there's no capital gains tax from the IRS, and the money is yours to spend as you wish.
Glenn is correct – This all depends upon what you'll do with these newly cleaned up credit cards….. It's a falacy that people can get out of debt by placing all their credit card debt onto their house. They usually run up their cards again in a few years and are then worse off than before.
Put the money to the house. Start paying EXTRA to your credit cards. Start cutting up your credit cards. Then start sending extra to your house.
FREEDOM!!!!!!
Do you have family or friends who can take your children to their homes for a while, while your husband & you are doing the necessary improvements? Your thirteen year old is old enough to help you with some of the work. Perhaps he can do some of the lawn work.
Will buyers need to only do cosmetic work or are other significant repairs needed? Is your home in a highly desirable area?
If it's in an average neighborhood, your best chance of selling a property "as is" is to set the selling price low, probably lower than you would want…
Set up a meeting with a real estate agent and get their input.
If you are really motivated to sell and get as much as you can out of your place, you probably will need spend some money as the other answers have suggested.
You could always try to offer your assistance to people who are selling their house without an agent. The newspaper has tons of FSBO ads. Try calling some and see if anyone is interested.
You could also try calling some of the larger real estate companies and work as a stager and also maybe do some other assistant work.
Loss on sale of personal residence is not deductible on tax return. You have a good idea about turning the house into a rental property, but should probably have it be a rental for around 1 to 2 years before selling it in order to make a good case if the IRS ever decided to audit you.
You major fee is the commission which is negotiable. 6% is typical in PA, but 5% is also very common. Your selling broker will split this fee with the buyer's broker.
Other fees are transfer tax of 1% of the sales price. ($3000)…
There are a few other incidentals that may run a couple hundred.
These costs are taken out of the "net" proceeds at closing. (sales price – loan balance – seller assist).
Great Video Presentation,now I have more ideas how to start my business.Thanks