Aug. 31, 2007: What can home sellers do differently to get their houses sold in the current Phoenix real estate market?
There are three houses for sale on my street. All three are comps to each other -- around 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths. They're priced within a thousand dollars of each other.
House number one is in excellent shape, a turn-key value. It isn't selling. House number two is in decent shape, but it has a western exposure. It isn't selling. House number three has been owned as a rental for years, a fact that is completely obvious at a glance. The lawn goes for weeks at a time without being mowed. Amazingly enough, this house isn't selling either.
Clearly, even the best of the three is overpriced for this market. How can we tell? Because it isn't selling, even though it's the pick of the litter.
What does that say about house number two? And what conclusion might the seller of dowdy, run-down house number three draw, if he were of a mind to draw conclusions?
Here's a better question: What might the seller of house number three do differently, if he actually wants his house sold?
It's satisfying, I suppose, to blame "the market." Too many sellers. Too few buyers. The lenders are in turmoil. What can you do?
My answer: Whatever it takes.
Homes are being sold every day. There are fewer buyers than there were a year ago, a lot fewer than two years ago. But even though too many homes are on the market, some of them are selling.
Which ones? Those homes that offer the greatest perceived value to buyers.
And where is that value perceived? In the quality of the home or in a bargain price.
The seller of house number three can beat "the market" in one of two ways. He can refurbish the home to the quality of house number one, then undercut it on price by five or ten percent. Or he can leave the house the way it is -- and cut the price by twenty percent.
Either way, "the market" is ready to make deals. All motivated sellers have to do is meet it halfway.
Greg Swann is the designated broker for BloodhoundRealty.com, a full-service Metropolitan Phoenix real estate brokerage. This article originally appeared in the West Valley regional sections of the Arizona Republic.
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