Studio Flats London

 Americans are all too familiar with the down market we are in right now. Houses are sitting on markets for a year or two collecting dust, costing you money, and in the end creating an unnecessary scenario in which you still have not sold your house. Keep in mind these properties are being listed with Realtors who try to say your local market is still strong, that the sky is orange, and that Elvis Presley is still alive and kicking. See where I’m getting at?

The truth is that every portion of this nation we call America has been affected. Sure maybe your house hasn’t drastically dropped in value, but I can still bet the buyer pool in your area has shrunk. If there aren’t many buyers out there qualifying for loans, then how can they buy your house? They can’t.

So how is someone to sell their house especially when time is an issue? Well, I believe the best way to sell in today’s market is by doing it yourself. Contracting with a Realtor is not ideal because for one the average house sits on market for 6-12 months until sold. This just doesn’t cater to the people who are motivated to sell their houses fast. These sellers maybe in a situation where they need to relocate for a job, or possibly they inherited the property and they they don’t want to make two mortgages. Who can blame them for wanting to sell fast?

A “For Sale By Owner” is basically you cutting out the middleman, the real estate agent, and in the end saving yourself money on commission fees. This will allow you to market the property the way you want. You are in the driver’s seat, and you don’t have to feel pressured by an agent. This means you can accept whatever offer you want and not have to worry whether or not the agent will be upset for taking less on their profit.

Ok so your are trying to sell your house and you want to know how the internet can help you? It’s quite simple. All it takes is for you to do a quick search on Google.com to find that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people looking to buy homes. For the most part these people are investors. Investors can buy your house with cash, cutting out the banks, and saving you time in the end. They will get their funding through a third party such as a hard money lender or private lender. Generally speaking, this cash loan is approved within 14 days. Sometimes it may only take 1-3 days for approval. What does this mean for you? It means that there is a good chance that you can close on the house within a month. The investor will want to make sure the title is free and clear of any liens or judgments, but once that is in check, and the inspections are in order, then really there is nothing left but to close on the house.

Will an investor buy my house if there are a lot of repairs needed? YES! If anything that will strengthen your chances of selling the house because most investors are in the business to rehab properties. No offense, but they want your house to be outdated and an eye sore. That’s another reason why investors are great to work with because they will buy a house in any condition.

I think as the word gets out, more and more people are going to use the investor option rather than the real estate agent option. The internet is one of the most invaluable tools at your disposal. Use it to advertise. Use it to reach a large audience of people. It’s right at your fingertips. Now just use it to your advantage and sell your home!

If you are in a tough real estate market and are looking to sell your home quickly, you might want to consider doing a For Sale By Owner. My wife and I recently bought a new house and after trying unsuccessfully to sell our existing house through a real estate agent for several months decided to try For Sale by Owner. We found a buyer within four days and closed on the house three weeks later. However, through our experience we discovered a few things. Here are a few tips if you are considering a FSBO in a less than ideal real estate market.

1. Consider paying to have your home placed in the MLS. There are several companies out there that will do this for a few hundred dollars. With sales down, real estate agents are desperate to earn a commission. By putting the house in the MLS you are agreeing that if an agent brings a buyer to you that you will pay the agent their part of the commission (you still save the listing agents commission). If you can sell the house on your own with no agent then you won’t have to pay an agent. However, in a tough market you want as many possible eyes on your property as possible.

2. Get the word out to as many places as possible about your house. One of the best places to do this is on the internet. There are dozens of free websites that will allow you to post your house for free. Consider starting with craigslist since it has so much traffic and then spread out to the other sites on the net. It will probably take you an entire evening to get the house posted on all the sites and you will want to keep a spreadsheet with your usernames and passwords so that you can go back later and remove the listing once the house sells.

3. Design a professional looking flyer and put out for sale by owner signs and a flyer box. If you aren’t the artistic type and don’t know that much about designing things like flyers consider a site like vflyer which will give you templates for designing a flyer. Take some good pictures of the house with your digital camera and put them on the flyer. If you use Vflyer or a program like it you can probably use the same template to post the house to craigslist and ebay (if you decide to pay for a listing).

4. Be creative. When we put our house on the market we ordered an eight foot full color printed banner to put on our fence. Our house backed to a major street and we were able to get some major exposure from the banner. I have heard of people offering free vacations, big screen tvs, cash bonus’ to the listing agent and even a free car. I have also heard of people giving away a cool prize at their open house. These things can help get your house noticed which is the first step to getting it sold.

5. Make sure that your price is competitive. Consider using the money that you are saving on real estate commissions to cut the price of your house so that it is more competitive. In tough markets it is going to be very important that your house isn’t priced too high or people will find another option. In our area there were a ton of houses on the market and most of the houses that were selling were 5% or more undervalued. If that is what it takes you might need to swallow hard and cut the price of your house.

Of course all of these things are just suggestions. Still, when things get tough and you need to sell your house these could be an option for you. They worked for us.