Jan. 21, 2010 - Dear Mr. & Mrs. Seller - Having trouble selling your house?

Open Letter to Home Sellers,

As a top listing agent for Fonville Morisey in Cary I offer sellers strong advice if they are selling in the current market.  The first 30 days is the most critical stage in marketing a listing and selling a home.  Sellers are finally realizing that you need to put your best foot forward in getting your home ready to sell.  In today's environment it is critical to do everything possible to get your house ready and you must price your home appropriately to get the highest price possible.  And, no, home prices today are not what they were in 2006!!

Here are some things you can do to improve the marketability of your property:

• Appropriate pricing for the neighborhood and size
• Enhanced the landscaping
• Signage
• Brochure on the property
• Presented listing to Fonville Morisey offices that show in your area by giving exposure to over 800 agents in other offices
• Enhanced Realtor.com listing
• Marketing Book to help sell the community, schools, neighborhood, area
• Virtual Tour
• Contacted all agents showing in your area and price range to let them know about this property
• Syndicate the listing on Trulia, Zillow, and all other online marketing sites for maximum exposure
• Listing syndicated to multiple web portals for optimal syndication
• Appropriate online precense to attract the maximum number of buyers
• The best listing photos-use a professional photographer
• More photos with the Enhanced Realtor.com option
• Glowing description of the property
• Featured Agent/Homes on Trulia.com so your listing gets more exposure
• Shop/Follow your competition - make sure you understand who you are competing with to sell your home - what neighborhoods, new construction, etc.  

Selling your home in a tight market is tough.  Even tougher is a whopping 30% increase in inventory from this time last year.  At this stage of the game it's not about what transpired during the boom time.   That window of opportunity is gone.  We need to think about what is going on in today's market.  Today's market is slow so we need to generate some creative ideas that will sell your home.  The reality is that prices have even dropped, on average, 10% from 2008/2009 in most areas. 

Here are some ideas that I'd like to throw out to incent the current "pool of buyers" out there to take a hard look at your home.  Things like:

• Buyer Agent Incentive
• Staging
• The dreaded price reduction
• Open House
• Generate market demand by indicating that a decision will be made on the "Best Offer" by the end of the month
• Creative advertising on Craigslist with a call to action

In the winter the market really slows down.  In 2009 we saw a 20% decline in sales year over year in combination with the increase in supply of homes.  If you would like to meet with a Fonville Morisey Listing Agent to discuss how to sell your home for top dollar in the shortest amout of time feel free to give me a call.

Regards,