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Warning: How to sell your home.

By
Real Estate Agent with Exit Realty Bob Lamb & Associates

August 27, 2008 When a Seller asks me "How can I sell my home fast?" I tell them the home must smell good, look good and be priced right!
There really is no other way to put it. When a buyer walks in the home they want to be able to breathe in a fresh smell. Not a artifical smell or one of stuffy or musty smells.
The home needs to look like you have had pride of ownership. If they can look through the home and see that you have taken care to make sure the home has had the normal repairs done for them, they know that they will not find any surpises later on when it is time for the inspection.
Pricing is the most important. If the home is not priced right then you will not even get the buyer to come in to look at the home.
Buying real estate is often an emotional decision, but when selling real estate you need to remove emotion from the equation.
You need to think of your house as a marketable commodity. Property. Real estate. Your goal is to get others to see it as their potential home. If you do not consciously make this decision, you can inadvertently create a situation where it takes longer to sell your property.
Do not do anything expensive, such as remodeling. If possible, use savings to pay for any repairs and improvements - do not go charging up credit cards or obtaining new loans. Remember that part of selling a house is also preparing to buy your next home. You do not want to do anything that will affect your credit scores or hurt your ability to qualify for your next mortgage.
Want more ideas on how to sell your home, give me a call or send me an email. I have many ways to help you sell your home.

Greg Steffens
Mountain Country Realty - Lake Arrowhead, CA

Hey Brenda - Welcome to Active Rain and congrats on your first post.  Be sure to spend some time looking around at what and how others are blogging here.  It is a great education and lots of fun.  Looks like you're off to a great start...keep it up!

Sep 18, 2008 06:09 AM
Guy Berry
Real Estate Expert Witness Support - San Jose, CA
Real Estate Broker and Legal Expert

Very well thought out.  I some opinions and ideas that might help you in your business;

http://activerain.com/guyberry

 

 

Sep 19, 2008 12:37 PM
Margaret Oscilia
Creative Concepts-Home Staging and Contracting, Salem Oregon - Salem, OR
Home Stager, Salem Oregon

Oh I love the Brentwood areas!  My daughers live in the Shelbyville area and we love your city.  Welcome to active rain -- its a wonderful learning/sharing and marketing opportunity!

Oct 09, 2008 04:08 AM
Anonymous
jeff daniels

one hugely important step that is missing is marketing! There is no such thing as over exposure in a slow market, that is unless you HAVE NOT followed the steps recommended above. They are extremely important you are only going to get one shot with each potential buyer.

Once you have your home in order you need to find a good website to advertise on. I sold my home quickly by posting my home on www.equizo.com. I had my property posted on one of those huge MLS sites. No results at all, then when I got to thinking about it why would any professional help me at a discounted rate? And why would they show other future home sellers that they could be successful by any other methods other than conventional? It would not be good business at all, and my failure to realize that cost me hundreds of $$$ and months in a slow real estate market where property values were dropping like rocks.

So basically to make a long story short while advertising on craigslist I came across a competing properties ad and really liked the way it looked. So I clicked on the ad and wound up on www.equizo.com. I signed up for free! The site has alot of invaluable tools, documents, and contracts.

Anyway I used their Classified creator and their subdomain to quickly post my ad's on craigslist, backpage, 123list.com, oodle.com, and on many blogs! I did it daily and after a week of posting I just canceled them in craigslist and others and renewed them right away! I had many contacts and that advertising method had a contract on my home in less than a month!

My suggestion is fsbo or realtor is advertise on any and all sources available, and find a site that is free and has useful stuff that you can use as a sort of base of operations... Try www.equizo.com!

Oct 19, 2008 08:36 AM
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