FSBO Jane

This post is part of a series here at FSBOJane.com: quick tips. Sometimes you want to read a long post; other times, you just want the meat of the issue and to move on. These posts are for the second group.

Today’s tip may remind you of the kind of advice you got in high school gym class: be aggressive! (Can’t you hear the cheerleaders? “Be, be aggressive!”) But it’s just as applicable now as it was then: when you are selling a home, you need to get your game face on. It’s not about waiting and hoping as much as it is about getting out there and advertising.

Let me explain what I mean. Let’s say you have two homeowners: A & B.

A takes a casual approach to his home sale. He puts an ad somewhere online, sticks a sign in the front yard, and he goes back to life as normal. If someone contacts him, he thinks, he’ll cross that bridge when it comes. This is the opposite of aggresive. It’s the freshman on the sidelines, too nervous to enter the game.

B takes a different approach. Before even putting out an ad, he gets his home in showable condition. He puts some stuff in storage, he holds garage sales, he pares down. Then, when the home looks its absolute best, he chooses advertising: the best he can find - virtual tours, a big-name Web site, descriptive text, gorgeous photographs. He puts a sign in the yard, sure. But he also puts brochures up at local businesses, e-mails his contact list and updates his Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to let his connections know he’s selling. That is what I mean by aggressive.

Ask yourself: Who’s going to sell faster?

When I talk to home owners who are ready to sell, I go over the same basic information with them, emphasizing that advertising is #1 in terms of priority. If you can’t get the word out about your home, you might as well hunker down for the next year or so - no one is going to buy it. And I mean that.

Beyond 1) NOT ADVERTISING, what are some other surefire ways not to sell your home? Well, I’d say any of the following will get you home overlooked and ignored:

2) MAKING IT HARD FOR BUYERS TO CONTACT YOU: Wherever you choose to advertise, it’s imperative that your phone number or e-mail address be listed and that they be working addresses/numbers!

3) BEING INFLEXIBLE ABOUT SHOWINGS: Now is not the time to be stubborn. Try to work around the buyers’ schedules and do your best to be accommodating.

4) NOT MAINTAINING CURB APPEAL: First impressions count, and you only get one chance to make yours!

5) LEAVING A MESS INSIDE: Today’s buyers are looking for move-in-ready, so that’s what your home needs to be. Get everything clean and organized - it needs to be easy for them to imagine living there!

If you are a parent, you already understand what I’m about to say. School districts matter in real estate. Whether or not you have children. Whether or not your children would attend public schools. Why? In a word, resale.

Consider how many buyers either (a) have children or (b) will have children. The number of these people is significant enough to warrant strong contemplation. When you sell a home, the pool of interested buyers decreases significantly based on a poor school district.

Because school districts matter to buyers, school districts matter should matter to you.

One of the features I enjoy about BuyOwner.com advertising is its attention to school districts. Listed properties will provide information on all the nearby schools, public and private, giving you as the seller the ability to communicate that info to interested parties.

Head over to BuyOwner.com to see what I mean!

Image: kevindooley

It’s a common question facing many homeowners in today’s market: When your home isn’t selling, what should you do? You can get the word out, improve your curb appeal, update your advertising… but at the end of the day, a bad market is a bad market.

Your basic options are simple: (1) Keep waiting, possibly lowering the price (2) Take your home off the market & rent it instead or (3) Give up.

Option #1. Keep Waiting

Even in the face of plunging home values and an abundance of listed for-sale homes, many homeowners today remain blithely unaware of the realities. Of course, it’s always possible that the right buyer will come along. But leaving a property listed at a too-high price (too high = not similar to competition) means almost certain failure.

One of the smartest ways to grab buyers’ interest is to lower your home price. Let’s face it: buyers are just as worried about losing money by buying your home as you are in selling it. They are aware of the market’s leanings, so they’re not easily swayed into a big purchase. Knocking your price way down may be the best (if not only) way to get their attention.

Leaving your price as it is, waiting for the right buyer, may mean waiting for a very, very long time. Especially as many of today’s experts don’t expect home values to return to normal before 2010.

Option #2: Rent Instead

The obvious negative with this scenario is that you still own a property that may continue to decrease in value. Additionally, you’ll have renters to manage, and any problems/damages will be yours to deal with.

But there are also big positives: Renters can often compensate for your monthly mortgage payments, if applicable. They also can cover all utilities, meaning bills you will be freed from, at least while they live there. In a rough housing market, people will still need places to live, and, if people aren’t buying, they’re certainly renting. This is a good option if you’re looking to ride out the market and recap some of your losses. When things pan out, you can try selling again.

Option #3: Give Up

If you don’t have to move, you can keep living in your home while you wait to determine your next move. You could wait a year or two and try to sell again, or you could just decide to forgo moving altogether. Sometimes, realizing buyers don’t love your home as much as you do can make you want to keep it.

Whatever you decide, it’s important to weigh all the factors together carefully. Being informed about the market is the best way to equip yourself to make a wise decision.

Creative home builders aren’t giving up in today’s housing market; they’re getting creative. Take Pulte Homes, for example, one of the largest home builders in the nation. Trying to draw clients not just to their constructions but also to the market in general, Pulte is matching the government’s $7.5K tax incentive to first-time home buyers with another $7.5K discount of its own.

According to this recent Wall Street Journal article, “The tax credit applies to primary residences bought by individuals making up to $75,000 a year or married couples with combined income of up to $150,000 a year.”

You can’t have owned a home within the last three years, in order to qualify as a first-timer.

As newbie home buyers make up a large slice of their potential clients, Pulte is sweetening the deal, so to speak, in hopes of luring more to the table.

For more information about the tax credit, visit the Federal Housing’s Tax Credit Site.

To read the rest of the Wall Street Journal article, go here.

Here’s another article that suggests the market might not be all bad.

In fact, for certain price ranges, it’s very good.