I read the funniest story today about a woman in Chicago offering $1,000 beer coupon the purchaser of her home to use at a bar across the street from her house currently on the market. Crazy? Or crazy like a fox? Her showings increased 300%. Was it the beer incentive? Maybe. However being a clever seller never hurts, but overall to get the home sold it really only boils down a couple of things PRICE, PRICE and PRICE!
I had some unresonable sellers once (go figure) and they would not budge on the price but they wanted to offer all these incentives...Free HOA Dues Paid for 1 Year!, Pool Table!, Alarm System! Free Lanscaping for a Year! and list went on and on. I told them listen its the price...you can put Go-Go Dancers in the front yard and yes, people will come and look but no one will buy your house since it's way over priced. And no one ever did they ended up renting the house.
I take some of the blame for taking an overpriced listing and I did not price ahead of the market. Now, I know to tell my clients that buyer's are saavy and they know the gimmicks and tricks that seller's will try to use to get their home sold. The seller may get more traffic through the home and it may or may not result in an offer. But if you priced the house correctly it will get sold. Case and point a house was priced at $987,000 and below the market in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, DC. The agent had an open house and 75 people showed up and it resulted in 2 offers in just 2 days on the market. A bidding war and the seller got more than asking price! It's the price...stupid :-)
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