How to Get Your Asking Price in a Buyer's Market

Posted at 12:14 PM, Feb. 9, 2008

In a buyers’ market it can often be tricky to get even close to your asking price. There are, however, a few things you can do to help get a little closer, or even actually get your asking price. A recent Realty Times article discussed some of the following tips that most people can implement to help get the asking price... and sell the house as soon as possible. There are generally three categories that they fall in:

ONE
Finish the unfinished rooms or convert any convertible rooms, such as the basement or a recreational room. Not only does this give an increased amount of usable space, but it can also be used as a selling point since these are expenses that the buyer doesn't have to incur. Not to mention, there seems to be an increased desire for move-in ready homes where the buyer does not have to do a thing to the house.

In houses over $500,000, offer a free media room. With deals, you can probably have one installed for around $5,000. Media rooms are something many house shoppers see as a neat luxury, and could be the difference between someone going for your house or someone else’s. Just over a year ago, Architectural Digest united with Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. in a consumer-trend study to find that 32% of people seeking a secondary home wanted a media room/home theater.  For more info on top amenities buyers look for in luxury homes, click here.

TWO
You can make the mortgage on your house more desirable by buying down the interest rate. This is something fairly easy to offer someone, and a lower payment certainly makes your home more desirable!

Rather than offering a cash-specific incentive, you can offer something else like a vacation. Again, this makes your offer stand out from other offers.

Offer seller financing. This is actually not that difficult to do if you can make the deal work, and can actually end up earning you some money. Talk to your realtor about the possibilities.


THREE
Offer to pay their HOA fees for a year. This is a practical buyer benefit. If someone is carefully looking at their budget, not having to include these fees in their monthly expenses can be a big deal.

Offer to pay off some of their debt. If this is done as part of the loan program, then it could lead to the buyer qualifying for a larger loan, or a better interest rate. If just a side agreement, then again, it could mean lower monthly payments, which can be extremely important to the buyer.

Finally, you can always offer to pay the closing costs. These tend to be something that is a big hit to buyers’ pocketbooks, and something people don’t adequately budget for when shopping for a new house.

Unfortunately, other than the few aesthetically appealing things you can do to spruce up the house, real incentives tend not to be cheap. They can mean the difference from having to drop your asking price by quite a few thousand... or actually getting what you want! The key to choosing which incentive to go for is to think about what incentive works best for you AND what is a true attraction for the demographic of buyers looking to buy your house and in the community you're in.