If you are a seller, you have three tools within your control that will affect the marketability of your home: price, condition and terms. Price is the easy one, easily adjusted against competing properties, inventory levels and market conditions. But lower your price may not be your best decision when you want the most from your sale.
If your home is outdated or in poor condition, spending some dollars to get it back in shape can make it show more favorably over other home for sale. Especially if your competition is brand new homes.
Don’t fall into the category that doesn’t want to do the updates because they think the buyers will do them. A buyer is using all their resources to actually buy the home you are selling, they will have to live with it the way it is until they can recover enough funds to renovate. Usually a few years.
If you need another reason to go ahead and update your home how about the fact that potential buyers usually can’t envision the home the way the want. They see it’s current condition and will remember it as the “stinky house” or the “outdated kitchen” or the “outrageous colors” which will put you at a huge disadvantage. You have one chance to make a good impression and that is when the home first goes on the market.
But while the price of your home and its current condition are the main controllers of marketability, terms can have a big impact also. Terms are the financial considerations that a seller offers to a buyer to entice them into buying their home.
Examples of terms are seller-paid loan points or closing costs, buy down on interest rates, and owner-financing options. Any or all of these may increase your marketability to potential buyers.
One example of favorable buyer terms would be the seller carrying a 10 percent second lien so that a buyer could get an 80 percent loan which lets them avoid mortgage insurance. As the seller, you would get most of your equity plus a fair interest rate on the second lien where payments won’t stretch out for 30 years.
Talking about the ways to increase your marketability with your RealtorⓇ is a great conversation to have. Talk about reasonable ways to get the best and highest price you can in a shorter amount of time. Talk about a pre-home inspection to point out issues that could be deal breakers. Talk about hiring a contractor to fix these issues before the home goes on the market. Also have a conversation about staging your home for sale. Homes that are professionally staged sell much faster than homes that are not. Make sure that your RealtorⓇ can be creative in finding you solutions that you can live with.
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