Except on rare occasions, selling a home is usually not easy or quick, especially if you deploy the same old tired tactics everyone else has been and is still using. Even in a healthy seller’s market, you still have a lot of competition, and you still have to make your listing and your house stand out in some way. So the more uniquely creative you are in your marketing and selling tactics, the better off you’ll be with respect to a quick sale at a good price. So let’s get creative. Here are 6 unusual things you can do to sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town .
1. Offer Creative Financing Options
For many people, money is the highest hurdle in their efforts to buy a house. So, often, an effective way to sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town is to offer mortgage-challenged buyers some financing options, such as owner financing and loan assumption.
OWNER FINANCING
With owner financing, you are actually the mortgage lender. You carry the note, and the buyer makes monthly payments to you. It’s much like renting your home, but without the headaches. The only drawbacks are that buyers will typically need a bigger down payment, around 10% to 20%, and the interest rate is usually higher than with traditional financing.
Real estate pros recommend this owner-financing option if your home isn’t actually worth a large amount, which makes banks hesitant to extend mortgage loans. And if you decide to go this route, there “are loan originators who can help guide the process as well as credit check buyers.”
LOAN ASSUMPTION
Offering loan assumption can also help you sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town . Here, instead of getting her own new mortgage, a buyer “assumes” or takes over your loan. The benefit for buyers is that they can typically get a lower, fixed interest rate. Just be aware that a VA loan might present some challenges. “VA loans can be assumed, but your full entitlement won’t be restored until the buyer pays off the loan (which might be okay, as you can buy up to two homes with a VA loan, anyway).”
2. Leverage the Reach and Power of Facebook
If you want to sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town , never underestimate the enormous reach and power of Facebook. This popular social media channel allows you to reach a huge targeted audience quickly.
Here’s an unusual and effective Facebook tactic. “Post your real estate listing on Facebook and let your ‘friends’ know that you’re offering a monetary reward for any’ share’ that results in the sale of your home. This can be as simple as a Visa gift card, though you should make it for an amount large enough – at least $200 – to pique people’s interest.” Just make sure you set the privacy setting for your post to “Public,” so that everyone will see it.
Also, be sure to consult your agent about Facebook marketing, A good agent will have her own Facebook page and will be savvy about online marketing. (To find out more about how a real estate agent can help you, call 3017071678.)
3. Sweeten the Deal With a Freebie
Another unusual thing you can do to sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town is to offer a freebie to sweeten the deal and make it almost irresistibly attractive to potential buyers. One home seller, for example, offered his car along with his house. He “parked his two-year-old Nissan Maxima on his lawn with a sign that said ‘Car comes with house!’ Needless to say, he sold his home within three days.” It just makes buyers feel they’re getting a better deal – even if you have to raise the price slightly to offset the cost of the freebie.
4. Effectively Utilize a Virtual Tour
Online virtual tours are a fairly common selling tool now, especially since the majority of home buyers begin their home search online. The problem, though, is that virtual tours aren’t always effectively utilized. Sure, you’ll want to upload your virtual tour to YouTube, but, again, don’t neglect the power of Facebook.
What you can do is to host your own live stream virtual tour on Facebook. It can be an actual walk-through of your house, giving buyers a real sense of what it would be like to live in your home – a live, online virtual open house. This can be a bit technical, but your agent can help you out here. In fact, your agent likely has several preferred tools for creating virtual tours and sharing online open houses.
5. Invite Buyer to Move in for a Weekend
It may sound crazy, but it works for selling your house – inviting potential buyers to move in for the weekend. What better way to let them find out what living there will really be like?
Here’s an example: “When Debbie Rose and her husband wanted to sell their Stamford, CT, home a few years ago, they quickly grew tired of ‘showing’ their place whenever potential buyers wanted to see it. So when a coworker mentioned that she was interested in moving to Stamford, the couple offered up their home for a weekend getaway. Their guests loved the house and town so much, they made an offer on the home a few weeks later.”
This tactic can make all the difference with an apparently serious buyer who just can’t get off the fence. Of course, with this tactic, you will need to exercise some caution and vet the people you let in.
6. Sell It Yourself
Although it’s not extremely unusual, it’s still a creative way to sell your house in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick & Charles Town – selling it yourself. Only “about 8% of homes sold in America are sold FSBO,” despite the proliferating online tools that make it easier than ever, so it very well may be unusual enough to work. The most common options here are simply marketing to individuals on places like Craigslist and Zillow and selling to an investor, which may result in a cash transaction.
While doing an FSBO deal can indeed result in a quicker sale, most sellers, as statistics prove, are better off doing a traditional deal and listing with an agent – chiefly because they usually get a better price for their home.