Dec. 16, 2007 - Thinking outside the box gets your home noticed

What is a home seller to do in a slow market such as this?

Have you reassessed the pricing of your home?  Get an updated Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) from a licensed and local real estate agent.  This report is usually provided without charge or obligation.  Your agent will be able to tell you what price other homes similar to yours have sold for, which homes similar to yours are under contract, how many other homes similar to yours are on the market and suggest pricing for today’s marketplace using the available Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data.  The reality is a downward adjustment in pricing may be required to get your home sold.

Another fairly new marketing reality is that the classified newspaper ad is one of the least effective methods of marketing your home.  Your agent should not only be using the local MLS but also the internet to showcase your home.  Here in Franklin Township, your home should be placed in both Garden State MLS and Middlesex MLS. Your home should be placed on your agent’s website, Realtor.com and sites that don’t draw from MLS. At the very least, sites such as Craigslist and Zillow should be employed.   

Both your agent and you must think “outside the box” to get your home noticed.  Here’s one great example of  doing just that: A New York Times story reported that Dave Hruby, a Minnesota home seller, whose house languished on the market for so long that he felt it must have became a red flag to buyers.   He reasoned it must be the worst house in town.

Mr. Hruby created a website called WorstHouseInEdina.com.  Essentially, what this seller did was inject a little humor, flip the script and market the house as a bargain.  It still hasn’t sold, but the website generated 700,000 hits!  That’s pretty impressive.  It’s noted that the concept is not totally new, check out the ugliest house of the year. 

Finally, if there is no pressure to sell now it could be best for you to take your home off the market for a while.  The perception of buyers is that homes remaining on the market for long periods are either over priced or has something wrong with them. With so many other homes to choose from, it is easier for buyers to look elsewhere rather than deal with a "problem" home. 

An option for you might be to rent the property and wait for the market to turn around.