Sell Your Home in Slow Times by Doing Your Own Marketing : Success in a down market starts with attitude. Be solution oriented
If you’re like many Southern Californians, there was a time when you bought into the idea that the value of real estate could only go up.
But times have changed. Buyers are no longer bidding up the prices of homes. Many news reports would have you believe that everything can only go down, down, down.
Still, in this time of depressed housing markets and seller fears, more than 1 million new housing units will be started this year. Obviously, builders feel there will be at least 1 million buyers out there. What are they doing that the typical home seller isn’t?
In the last decade, marketing and merchandising of consumer products has become very sophisticated. Pepsi spends millions hiring entertainers to sell their products. Proctor & Gamble does extensive marketing studies on every nuance of their buyers and on the packaging, display and quality of their products.
Yet the typical home seller thinks that by merely putting a For Sale sign out on the front lawn and having a listing in the MLS, he or she will get full price.
Fighting the down-market mentality. Selling your house starts with (1) having a top product that meets a market need and then (2) getting the word out to the appropriate buyers and intermediaries. It then (3) moves into how to give the buyer what he wants while getting what you want and then (4) into a successful sale.
In the last decade, the merchandising of new houses has become a specialty in itself, with the goal of getting potential buyers to the home, getting them emotionally excited about it and then selling it to them.
You have to act as the marketing director of your own home sales project. One of the first steps to getting the most for your home is to find a good real estate agent who knows these same techniques.
You must also become active and help the agent by knowing the techniques yourself and implementing as many of them as you can. For example, you should help your agent orchestrate the home tour and help prepare a brochure for guests to take when they leave.
It’s time to be honest with yourself. Admit that the drunken orgy of home buying because “prices can only go up” is over. It may be years before anything like it comes back again. The country is in a down market now, and the key to selling your house is to use your money and time effectively.
You need to make your home appeal to today’s buyer and overcome the down market mentality that causes most potential buyers to wait on the sidelines.
Be creative. Success in a down market starts with attitude. Be solution oriented, not problem oriented. Instead of assuming it can’t be done, focus on the question “How can it be done?” You can sell your home, and at a good price. People do it every day. The key is to match what you have with what a buyer is willing to buy.
Cultivate an open mind and look around you. What seems to be working for other people? What isn’t? Talk to brokers, appraisers and builders. Get a feel for what it takes to sell a home for top dollar in today’s market. Someone must be doing well--find that person and ask questions. You can find these people by talking to your neighbors, friends and co-workers who live in your area. They can tell you who they have heard is doing well.
Entrepreneurial marketing. Do market research that other home sellers rarely think about.
If you were a developer planning to build new homes in the area, you would want to consider many factors. You would check economic conditions. Are companies laying off employees or is there an anticipated expansion by some corporations (whether announced or unannounced)? Will interest rates rise or fall?
These are the same determinations you need to make when deciding to place your home on the market.
Your research may uncover that good times are not too far away in your area, or that there is no new supply of housing coming on line and demand has been increasing.
Many real estate agents and appraisers are reactive, viewing today’s market based on yesterday. You need to become proactive and see where trends are going in your area. Armed with this information, you can determine a realistic asking price, perhaps much better than the pros can.
See if a need is not being addressed. Ideas appearing in new-home communities often totally escape the resale market. These ideas would help a home sell more quickly, but most real estate agents specialize in either one or the other and so tend not to put two and two together. Look to see if a desire is not being addressed in your area.
Perhaps you see “empty nesters” moving into your area. You can address this trend the same way the new home developers do, by adding safety-oriented features such as increased outdoor lighting and installing non-skid surfaces.
Or maybe young families with children are moving in. You can fill their needs by updating the family room or fencing the yard for the children.
By meeting the needs of your buyers, while your neighbor sells his generic “updated home,” you increase the odds that it is your home that will be purchased.
Why people buy. Every home can make some emotional appeal to people’s wants or needs. Find the emotional draw of your home. Stand in front of it and ask yourself, “What is the emotional appeal here?” What is the romance value--or how can you create some?
Practice on other homes in your neighborhood. Look at them and evaluate their emotional appeal from the street. Inside, look for that warm fireplace, the sunny breakfast nook or the private deck off the master bedroom. Think about how you would describe this home to someone. What do you like best?
Now look at your own home. Where are those special places in your home, the ones you go to on a sunny morning or a rainy night? These are the areas that sell a home.
Target your house to the values of the potential buyers, not your own. Do they go with the crowd or against it? Look at the type of products they buy, such as the cars they drive. This will help you come up with logical and emotional reasons that are appealing to the prospect.
Each area in your home will have appeal to a particular type of buyer. An efficient kitchen might appeal to a busy executive, while a gourmet kitchen will attract someone with family values.
The location of a home can appeal to social mobility. If it is in a very desired location, you can appeal to the desire to move up, even if the price is high.
Tap into the buyer’s perception of quality. Food producers know that “premium gourmet foods” can command a much higher price than the same food with a less enticing label, even if the food is exactly the same.
In the same way, home marketers know that certain architectural icons can make a home seem more impressive and valuable than it otherwise might be. Columns can make a room seem grand, a small marble inset in the entry floor can make a home seem custom, halogen lights can give a home that gallery look. None of these items have to cost much but they can add thousands of dollars to the perceived value of your home.
Work with your buyer’s senses, not against them. Color affects our mood and our perceptions of objects around us. Decorators will tell you that whites with a hint of yellow will tend to warm up a room and are more effective than pure white. If you have Day-Glo orange walls, your home has lost value because buyers will assume that you were not a serious owner who took proper care of the house.
Sound also plays a role in the perception of a home and of its value. A negative example of this is noise. A house that transmits sound from room to room is perceived as cheap. Similarly, you want to exclude street noise and other exterior sounds from the home for the same reasons. This can be done inexpensively with proper curtains and heavier doors.
Sounds that connote “work,” such as the dishwasher churning or the lawn mower running, remind buyers of the unfortunate realities of running a home rather than the dream and fantasy of owning one.
Pricing your home correctly. A house priced at the market will sell. The right way to start in pricing your home is to use professionals. If you are using a real estate agent, he or she should be able to price your home for you as part of the selling fee.
Be honest about the value of your house. The four major reasons people overprice their homes are ego (feeling like you need to get more for your home than your neighbors do), imperfect markets (prices can vary widely based on unseen economic factors), emotions (assuming that the sweat you put into your house should be reflected in a higher sale price), and pride (not admitting that your house is worth less than it was a year or two ago).
On the other hand, be sure to increase the cost of your home for valuable factors such as proximity to good schools and city services.
Your ability to spot changing market conditions is crucial. Interest-rate changes, banks dumping properties on the market and negative media coverage will affect you. The key is to adapt. Most people are using outdated strategies that are only partially effective when circumstances change.
If your home is not selling, review the value perception it creates in your prospects. Why aren’t they buying? Why don’t they sense the value you have created? Is your property getting enough exposure? It is one matter to have no sales after 150 prospects have walked through the door, quite another when only three have.
Selling your house in a down market can be frustrating. Long periods of time can go by when nothing seems to be happening. But the key is not to sit back and wait: take action. You need to constantly be asking two questions:
“What else can I be doing to bring the buyer to my home?” and “What else can I do to ensure I get a fair price for my house?”
Make plans and then have the flexibility to respond to change and the market.
There are no panaceas. Markets get bad and home prices go down. But even in the worst of markets, there are people selling homes and making money. Do your homework, put in the extra effort. You must be committed and you must have persistence. Don’t get discouraged.
It may take some time, but eventually you’ll hook up with the right buyer. Trying something for a week or two and then dropping it is not the professional way to market. People need time to be exposed to your house and its value, and you need to continue making the consistent effort.
This article is excerpted from “Getting the Most for Your Home in a Down Market” by Dan Lieberman and Paul Hoffman, 345 pages, $14.95. Bob Adams, Inc. (Holbrook, Mass.). Lieberman is a professional home renovator, real estate teacher and investor. Hoffman is the author of more than a dozen books on a wide variety of topics, including home renovation.
