Attention to details helps homeowners sell fast in a buyers market

Your boss has just given you the career opportunity of a lifetime, but the job is in another province.

Soon you discover that moving your family to another city may be one of life’s hardest tasks. The thought of leaving behind old friends and schools for a strange town can be frightening. The biggest challenge of all, however, it to preserve the equity in your housing investment so you will be able to purchase a similar home in the new location.

Not to worry. Even in these uncertain times homeowners can sell at very satisfactory prices in a reasonable period of time. The secret? Pay attention to details, use savvy marketing and price your home to sell quickly.

The following tips can help you get that “sold” sign up fast.

SELECT A SAVVY REAL ESTATE AGENT… one with a successful track record in your neighbourhood, backed by resources that extend into outside housing markets. Make sure the agent prepares an effective listing of your property -- one that outlines all the features that make your home unique. Also, it’s smart to prepare a separate fact sheet that can be distributed freely to all interested buyers. In soft time, offering the agent a bonus if the house sells within 60 days can work to the homeowner’s advantage.

OFFER THE RIGHT PRICE. Start with a price that is reasonable for your neighbourhood and the size of your home. Comparing the price of your home with similar nearby listings is an easy way to be sure you are offering the right price. Comparing the opinions of two independent appraisers will also help you avoid over-pricing.

PAY PART OF THE CLOSING COSTS… usually 3 to 5 percent of the loan amount. This will attract those first-time buyers who are short on cash for down-payment and closing costs. Offering to turn over personal property such as washing machines and dryers, refrigerators and flower boxes can also attract buyers looking for the best deal.

ACCEPT CONTINGENCY AGREEMENTS. Make your sale contingent upon the sale of the buyer’s home. This takes away buyers’ fears of juggling two properties and mortgages at the same time.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CORPORATE RELOCATION TRADE. Be sure that your broker is connected to a relocation network – one capable of brining in buyers from distant places. And, of course, try to get your employer to provide you with relocation assistance, too.

MAKE YOUR HOME STAND OUT. Fresh paint and flowers can go a long way in impressing buyers. Tend to such details as moving the lawn, fixing stubborn door knobs and sliding doors, and straightening up the basement. Remember, your home’s appearance on the day it’s shown can make or break a sale.

The bottom line is that sellers should take the time to make their home as attractive as possible. Compiling helpful tips for the buyer about school districts, utility bills and directions to the nearest shopping mall can go a long way in selling your house quickly.

With a little work and an active real estate agent, chances are good that your house will sell fast in today’s buyer’s market.

Probably the most basic rule of all, in this regard, is the one that says you should never –unless you absolutely don’t care at all about eventual resale value – improve a house to the point where its desired sales price would be more than 20 percent higher than the most expensive of the other houses in the immediate neighbourhood.

Try to raise the value of your house too high, that is, and surrounding properties will pull it down.

Here are some other rules worth remembering:

• Never rearrange the interior of your house in a way that reduces the total number of bedrooms to less than three.
• Never add a third bathroom to a two-bath house unless you don’t care about ever recouping your investment.
• Swimming pools rarely return what you spend to install them. Ditto for sun rooms – and finished basements.
• If you decide to do what’s usually the smart thing and move rather than improve, it’s often the smaller, relatively inexpensive improvements that turn out to be most worth doing.
• The cost of replacing a discoloured toilet bow, making sure all the windows work or getting rid of dead trees and shrubs in trivial compared with adding a bathroom, but such things can have a big and very positive impact on prospective buyers. A good broker can help you decide which expenditures make sense and which don’t, and can save you a lot of money in the process.