Sell Your Home in 37 Days!

Is your home not selling?  Has your listing expired?  Are you sick of excuses and empty promises?  Contrary to popular belief, it is entirely possible to sell your home in 37 days in ANY market.  We are here to give you the straight goods, the insider secrets.  Finally, a sure fire way to sell your home in 37 days. 

With these 8 Steps, you will discover how to protect and capitalize on your most important investment, reduce stress, be in control of your situation, and make the most profit possible.

In this report you'll discover how to avoid having your home sit on the market for months and months - or worse, years! - without a sale or even an offer, watching the market spiral downward. 

The housing market is not on your side right now.  With falling housing values and economic uncertainty, it is definitely a buyer’s market.  So how do you sell a home in this market?  There are several imperative steps you must take that will ensure your home will sell in 37 days or less:  

1. HIRE A GREAT REALTOR®:   Many people make their decision on who to hire for a Realtor® on personal relationships – “My son just got his Realtor®’s license.”  “I work out with her and she seems nice.”  While it is important to have a good relationship with your Realtor®, that’s not the most important point.  You want to choose a Realtor® who can get the job done. Not just anyone will do in today's aggressive marketplace - you need a knowledgable partner to guide you through the steps and avoid the pitfalls.  You also particularly need an agent who has a significant market presence and will be able to give your home the exposure needed to sell it quickly.
   
   
2. CURB APPEAL COUNTS:  Think of the last time you went to garage sales.  What made the difference in whether you stopped at the sale, or just drove by?  Most likely, it was the set-up of the products for sale.  Selling your home is no different.  If it doesn’t give a good first impression, a drive-by may be all that it gets.  It’s time to be your own worst critic.  Get in your car, drive around the block and park across the street from your house.  How does it look?  Is the exterior fresh and clean, or does it need repainting or a power-wash?  Is the lawn mowed?  Is it green?  Is there moss on the roof?  Loose shingles?  Is there oil on the driveway?  Is there a dead vehicle in the driveway?  Is your garden weed-free?  Would you buy your house if all you knew about it was what you were looking at from your car?  If not, get busy.  Most of the things necessary for a positive curb appeal are labor intensive, but inexpensive.   Make sure you don’t have unfinished projects lying about.  Put the trash bins in the back yard.  Run down and get some seasonal plants to liven up the garden.  Water the lawn.  If it’s winter, make sure your walks and drive are snow and ice free.  Having trouble making an objective analysis?  Ask your Realtor® – he or she will be happy to share their opinion with you.
   
   
3. STAGE YOUR HOME:  Living in a home is not the same as selling it.  Your style and your personal items are important to you, but will distract a potential buyer.  They’re trying to see themselves living in your house.  Make it easy for them by merchandising your home.   First, de-clutter.  There is nothing so distracting as clutter.  Your kitchen counters should be clear, your craft projects stored away, your laundry in baskets, your shoes in the closet, the trash in the bins.  Next, reduce your personal impression on the home.  Make your home look as spacious as possible by removing excess furniture and personal items.  If you need to, rent a storage locker at your local mini-storage – you’re going to be moving out anyway.  It’s just some advance packing!  Do you love your dog or cat?  Good.  But potential buyers may not.  To them, your pet is a potential problem that will make them look more critically at your house.  Make sure your pet’s presence in the house is minimalized.  Also, make sure that your home doesn’t have any obvious unfinished projects.   You don’t want potential buyers spending all their time looking at the wires where you meant to install that new ceiling fan.  When you think you’re done with merchandising your home, get a second opinion.  Invite over your most tactless friend and ask what he/she thinks?  Then reassess with your Realtor® when you’re really finished.
   
   
4. REPAIR ANY DEFECTS:  Nothing can kill a home sale at the last minute quicker than a negative home inspection. Why wait until conditions are about to be removed before you find out you have an electrical problem? A home with no known defects sells faster. Get a professional home inspector into your home, regardless of its age or condition. Then fix anything that comes out of the inspection report of any consequence, and make the report available to every potential buyer that walks through your door. Even if the Buyer decides to do their own home inspection, it shows that you are willing to stand behind your home's condition and will give the Buyer peace of mind.
   
   
5. PRICE YOUR HOME RIGHT:  It’s always tough to price your home.  You’ve put sweat and time and love into it, so you have a sentimental attachment to the home that just isn’t figured into a viable sales price.  For a quick sale, you need to price your home below the comparable properties in your area, so it will be at the top of everyone’s view list.  Your Realtor will advise you on pricing and will show you comparable properties.  Remember, the listing price isn’t important.  What’s important in a comparable property is the sales figure, because that’s the figure that will tell you what people will pay for a house like yours.   If you need additional confirmation, or if you have an unusual property, hiring an appraiser may give you the information you need to choose a good sales price.  Lastly, you will have to choose what’s most important to you.  Your home will most likely sell if you set a good sales price.  However, if you want it to sell quickly, you may have to drop your price a bit, paying for the quick sale with less money in your pocket.  Listen to your Realtor, but remember, this is a decision you must make alone.  You will have to live with the consequences of your decision.
   
   The buyer for your home will look at many different homes.  If they’re organized, they will have a list of their “must-haves” and their Realtor® will accommodate that list.  If they’re novice buyers, or just not sure of their needs, they may see all the properties within a certain price range.  You, as a seller, are potentially competing with all the sellers with similar homes, with similar price tags, with similar locations.  Pricing, then, becomes one of the strongest ways to distinguish your home from all the others in the Okanagan Valley.   There are four distinct ways Sellers price their homes:
   
   
   • Clearly Overpriced:  Every seller wants to realize the most amount of money for their home, and real estate agents know this.  If more than one agent is competing for your listing, an easy way to win the battle is to “buy the listing”, i.e., overinflate the value of your home to impress you into listing with them.  This is done far too often, which leaves home prices 10% to 20% over their true market value.  However, this is not in the Seller’s best interest because the market won’t be fooled.  As a result, these homes languish on the market for months or years.  The house is competing against the wrong homes, paling in comparison to the correctly priced homes in that price range.  Eventually, they can be labelled a “troubled” house and may not even get shown and usually do not sell.   These sellers are inconvenienced with maintaining their homes at “show ready” condition, but few showings take place, no offers are received.  Eventually, these listings expire, and the house will usually reappear on the market at a lower sales price, but often not low enough, and the whole process begins again.  Recommendation:  Don’t hire a Realtor because of a high suggested sales price.  Hire a Realtor because of their expertise and ability to market your home.  And then listen to your Realtor, objectively look at the comparables, and choose an appropriate sales price.
     
   • Somewhat Overpriced:  About 75% of homes on the market are 5% to 10% overpriced.  These homes will also sit on the market longer than they should.  There is usually one of two factors at play here – sellers either believe in their hearts that their home is really worth that much despite what the market has indicated, or they feel they need to leave room for negotiation in the bidding process.  Either way, this approach costs, both in terms of time on the market and ultimate price received.  Recommendation:  Recognize that you will pay for the higher sales price with a longer time on the market.  If your reasons are emotional, revisit the decision after depersonalizing your home and going to see a few other homes.  It will help you be more objective. Frequently, bid negotiation is less about the sales price than about getting something extra thrown in – shorter closing date, a homeowner’s warranty, the curtains in the living room.  Don’t worry about building wiggle room in your sales price.
     
   • Correctly Priced:  If you are able to put your emotions aside, carefully analyse the comparable properties and heed the advice of your expert Realtor® - you will be able to correctly price your property for the current market.  This means your home will stand on its own merits against others in its price range.  Recommendation:  If you are not comfortable with the correct pricing of your home, you may want to stay out of the market until capitalism works in your favour to get the price you are looking for.
     
   • Below Market Value:  Some sellers are motivated for a quick sale.  These homes usually attract multiple offers and sell fast, usually in a few days and sometimes above the asking price.  When markets are tight and there are few buyers in the market, this can be the best approach to generate interest and ultimately a quick sale.  Recommendation:  The ultimate decision to price your home below market value is yours, alone.  In certain circumstances, you may feel the lower price is worth a fast sale, so you can move on to another location or close your next home.
     
     
6. MARKETING EXCELLENCE:  To sell your home fast, you need ready, willing and able buyers.  To sell a home for more money, you also need ready, willing and able buyers.  Local advertising is sufficient if you don’t care how long it takes to sell your home or how much it sells for.  But if you are interested in a speedy, profitable sale, a combination of local and out-of-town advertising, plus a dynamic internet presence is crucial to selling your home.   Choose a Realtor® and a real estate company that has all of these items in place and is ready, willing and able to market your home aggressively.
   
   
7. SHOWINGS:  Let’s face it; selling your home is inconvenient.  But to be sold, your home must be seen.  Some Sellers (or Tenants) want to dictate hours, appointment times, and provide complicated showing instructions.  This strategy leads to missed viewings and offers made on other people’s homes.  Work with your Realtor® – let him/her put on a lock box and show the home whenever needed with little or no notice.  Put your expensive jewelry in a safety deposit box, put your sentimental items in storage, keep the dog in the dog run, clean your breakfast dishes, and allow free access to your home.  If someone’s interested in possibly buying your home, let them come in and buy it!
   
   
8. REDUCE YOUR PRICE:  If your home hasn’t received an offer in 7 days, it means the market has shifted and/or the listing price is off the mark.  Reduce the price by 2.5% and keep reducing if it has not sold in another 7 days.  The trick is to stay aggressive and ensure that you are ahead of the market and not behind it.