5 anal-retentive selling strategies that you can ride to the closing table
No one likes a “tight-wad,” but, they’re the ones laughing all the way to the bank when it comes to selling these days. The point is, sellers who take meticulous care of their home and property and look after all the details have a much greater chance of selling quickly, or selling at all. Here are 5 critical details to look after to give you and your family the absolutely best chance to sell your home:
Want to sell? Learn from Microsoft’s Xbox 360
In case you’re not familiar with the story, here is the quick and dirty version: In December, 2007, Microsoft sold over a million Xbox 360s (if you’re wondering “what in the heck is an Xbox 360,” it is a new videogame system produced by Microsoft). Microsoft, many say purposefully, slowed their supply of this fresh product, creating a shortage, which spawned a real sense of urgency amongst videogame buyers. The result? For the next 3 months, buyers lined up at popular electronics stores so they could get their hands on the last remaining game boxes.
There are 2 very important points here for motivated home sellers: 1) you need to create a sense of urgency for your home in order to drive up demand, and as a result, your price; 2) you need to make your product (home) desirable. Put the 2 together and you’ll have people lined up at your door, just like Microsoft did earlier this year, regardless of market conditions. So, how do you do it? Keep reading.
Auctions: Win-Win-Win
Real estate is the fastest growing segment of the auction world and residential real estate auction sales revenue has increased an astounding 46% over the last 5 years through the end of 2007. This is an incredible statistic considering overall U.S. home sales have plummeted by double digits since 2006. This is not an accident. No longer are real estate auctions for foreclosed properties or a last resort. Thousands of everyday home sellers are turning to auctions as an effective vehicle to sell their home.
“Your Marketing Sucks”
This title is the name of a popular marketing book (and what I believe to contain valuable marketing insights) by Mark Stevens; but for the purpose of this article, this phrase is a simple fact that unfortunately is true for the vast majority of home sellers. I live in Orlando and there are approximately 30,000 homes for sale, not including new builder construction and FSBOs (adding these in would bring us closer to 45,000). The law of supply and demand right now clearly indicates we’re in the heaviest buyer’s market that this country has seen in more than 2 decades. This type of disparity is atypical and extremely non-tradition compared to a normal real estate market.