How can I sell this place!?

General Real Estate Investing
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I currently have my house on the market in coastal SC. Although the market’s slowed here, my neighborhood has fared well. Smallish neighborhood, but we’ve had 7 closings in the last 60 days, with 7 pendings. However, there are 28 houses on the market. That’s a lot of inventory. But people are looking, and people are buying. Just not this house. The weird thing is, this house, in a neighborhood of fairly homogenous houses, is unique in that it has 4brs and a master on the main, 8 yr. warranty, and a few other, what I see as, advantages over the others.

My dilemma is this: I need to sell my house fast(who doesn’t?).

I’m not getting much action, and haven’t seen any buyers in almost 2 weeks come through. The house has been on the market a month now. That’s ridiculous.

I see my options as: lower the price; or offer an incentive to the buyer’s agent? What would produce the best results? I think it’s priced fairly, but I can take a small hit and lower the price. Or would that $ be better spent as a bonus enticing more agents to show the place?

I’m worried that if I lower the price, buyers will see that and think “hey, he’s desperate…if I keep waiting, he’ll keep lowering it .”

Unfortunately, my realtors are pretty slack, and aren’t exactly falling over themselves to market this place. 1 Sunday ad a week, sign in the yard, MLS, flyers, and that’s it. But their ace in the hole, which they know, is that they are the only brokerage that can put For Sale signs in yards in this neighborhood and have an on-premises sales office. It’s extortion if you ask me, but that’s another post.

They’ve also explained that I can increase their commission and they will market it more. I think what their commission will wind up being is more than fair as is. Anyone have any advice or thoughts or suggestions or experience with generating some heat? What have you seen work for a seller between the two? Or is there a better solution?
Thanks!-
Michael

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OK, here’s an update-the 1 other house in the entire neighborhood that is the same model as mine(mine’s nicer) also went on the market a few weeks ago also. The owners are having to move to Atlanta, so they HAVE to sell. They just dropped their price from 315k to 299.9k. And they had dropped it from 325k to 315k when they saw I had priced mine at 316k. This is going to get ugly.
I can’t drop my price that much, in good faith, to compete. These houses could get 315k with a little time and if they were marketed right.
But that doesn’t bode well for me.

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Has the home that recently went up in your neighborhood sold?

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No-They just reduced it.

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Are you offering anything to the buyers (e.g., $2,000 towards closing costs)?

Are you offering anything to the buyer’s agent (e.g., additional $2k)?

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No; that was what I was asking-what type of incentives are most effective?
I know when I see a seller offering a ‘carpeting allowance’ or some other type of allowance, I ususally just ask myself why don’t they just reduce the asking price by that amount?
For helping with the closing costs, I’m open to anything, if they’ll ask. Everything is negotiable.
What I’m leaning towards is knocking the price down from 316 to 310 and offer the selling agent 3500, dependant on the sales price. That should at least get some agents to bring people into the house, which hasn’t been happening for some reason. I think the “over 300k” market is just having a really hard time around here.(I don’t really know about over 400k) but the under 300k is doing very well. But I can’t knock it down that low-it’d be giving this place away.

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What’s the commission for the buyer & seller agents? What did the other homes sell for? How did you happen to meet/choose your agent?

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Listing agent is at 2%, selling is 3%. The other homes around here have been selling between 245 and 399. It’s a fairly homogenous neighborhood with about 7 or so different models in it, with the exception of mine and the other, which were built by a different developer, but they fit in with the rest. Mine has distinct features others don’t offer, which should be drawing some attention. It’s a very popular neighborhood as well.
I chose my agent, as posted earlier, as they are the agent that represents the developer who is building out this neighborhood. All the new homes except for maybe a few have been sold(they are the lower end models), but they also do resales, and have an office at the entrance of the neighborhood. Per the covenants, they are the only ones allowed to place signs in yards. Although their marketing isn’t exactly over the top, they have the huge advantage of having the sales office on-site and are able to put ‘for sale’ signs in yards. I think 2% is more than fair. I’ve become pretty good acquiantences with the agent as well, since I’ve lived here 2 years and see him all the time since he works here. There are actually 2 agents in the office, and they split the commission, as they both do open houses and showings. They have an assistant who does the marketing legwork.

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Offer to Buy Down the buyer’s interest rate. Atleast here in Florida, the seller is allowed to contribute up to 6% of the selling price toward’s the buyer’s closing costs or down payment. The proceeds get taken out at closing. YOu can contact www.getdownpayment.com They are a non-profit organization that gives the money to the buyer and then gets it back at closing. They only charge $500 for the process.

You can also contribute up to 6% towards buying down the buyer’s interest rate, reducing their mortgage payments substantially. The most popular is the 3-2-1 Buy Down.

These incentives will allow for more qualified buyers. Yes, offering the real estate a higher commission works, but it’s easier for the agent to sell it if you offer the buyer incentives as well.

Good Luck.

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My biggest problem isn’t convincing a buyer to buy the house-I would welcome that problem; it’s just getting people to come look at it. I think anyone who’s in the market for a house in this price range will love it once they see it. Everyone has who has come through here, but they weren’t serious buyers or it was way above their price range. Problem is, no one’s seeing it. The realtors say it’s not just this neighborhood; it’s everywhere around here. I know there are people buying houses in this town, and they’;r buying houses in this price range, so it’s a marketing/effort issue. I’m not even going to waste my time trying to get my realtors to go out and find buyers, so I need to lure people and their agents here myself. I’m still thinking a bribe/incentive to other agents and discounting the price a little will help.
That’s what I’m doing.
Thanks for the help. I agree, though-paying points would be attractive, but first things first.

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What I’m saying is that you should market your home with these incentives advertised.

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2 words, you’re fired. (well actually nearly 3 with the contraction) The commission alone should be enough incentive to try and sell it. Don’t they understand they don’t get paid until it sells? Find someone else that is hungry and wants to sell your property just as badly as you do. If all else fails I LOVE this idea: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/free-corvette-purchase

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I made sure to get a 3 month LA, and we’re 1/2-way through it, so we’ll see what happens.
In their defense, they are limited by being an on-site sales office strictly for this neighborhood and having a large inventory.

But I can’t get over him telling me that. I walked out thinking: so, if someone offers a 7% comm. on a 220k home, vs. a 5% on a 350k, you’re going to put more into the 220k? I hope he isn’t that dumb, and was just talking off the top of his head.

I went ahead and adjusted the price by 5k, and am offeirng a 3500 bonus for a full price offer. Had all of no one come this past week. But I did have a realtor just pull up when I was outside and I gave him a tour and he said he may have a buyer. Isn’t that what they all say?

I’m optimistic, but impatient. And the fact the other house like this one sold last week, and I don’t think the buyers ever even looked at this one irks me. However, I also know the buyers gave it away.

We’ll see-those guys have 6 weeks to get a contract, and they know it.

I like the corvette idea, too, unless they refused the car, andwanted the price reduced by the amount of the car(causing another topic of negotiation) and you’d be stuck with an old clunker corvette. I guess you could pass it off on another property though. I’d be more than willing to include my car, which people have asked if it comes with the house, but I think they’d be shocked at how much I’d have to jack up the price. But hey, everything’s negotiable.