Have to Move Right Away? Hire a Realtor

REAL ESTATE q&a

Have to Move Right Away? Hire a RealtorBy Talia Freedman

Q: My job is relocating me to another city and I have to sell my house in the next three months so I can buy something in the new city when I move. The problem is, there are a lot of houses for sale in my area and I don’t know if I can sell fast enough. What should I do?

A: Well, if you’re determined to sell your house now – as opposed to holding on to it as a rental for a while – then you’ll need to do a combination of staging, aggressive pricing and marketing to get the house sold.

First of all, I assume you’re working with a Realtor and not trying to sell your house yourself. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t begrudge people who try to sell their houses on their own. Some people are good at it and cut out for the pressure. But, if you’re on a time crunch, you’ll need as much exposure for the house as you can get and that means having a Realtor market the property aggressively to other Realtors and the general public.

If you’re in an area with good driving traffic, then open houses can help sell the house. Talk to your Realtor about how often they plan on “holding the house open.” I don’t recommend having an open house every day, but you can do an aggressive schedule if you think the driving traffic will be there.

However, there’s no point in getting lots of traffic into your house if it’s not priced right and if it doesn’t look amazing. The combination of the two is what will give you the best chance of finding a willing buyer. This means figuring out the most likely sales price for your house and possibly listing just below it. You want it to sell fast, so you have to beat out the competition before anyone even walks in the door.

The second factor is the staging. Since you’ll be living in the house while you’re trying to sell, staging will ideally mean using your existing furniture and just rearranging and maybe adding a few pieces so the house looks well designed and sophisticated for potential buyers. You might also need to do some painting, particularly if you’re in an area where all of the houses look the same. Making your home unique, but clean, is the key to selling when there’s a lot of similar inventory. You want your house to stand out from the crowd and painting and staging are two good ways to do that.

You just might get a sale if you can get prospects to imagine themselves living in your home. But if you can get them to imagine their “best selves” living in your home, you’re guaranteed a sale.

Talia Freedman is a Realtor with Signature Southwest Properties
— This article appeared on page 3 of the West Side Journal