Timely Advice on
Selling Your Home

Need some advice on selling your home?

Tough market got you down? or confused?

Need a few fresh thoughts on how to find that perfect buyer?

Assuming you have followed our three-step plan for getting your home ready for sale and it is completely staged and ready to show, then you are ready for prospective buyers to tour your home. But what if you've done all that and the buyers aren't buying, or worse, not even touring? Then what do you do?

There is an art in addition to a science of selling a house. Hopefully, your agent has taken care of the science part. That is, you have selected the right agent and that agent has priced your home properly and is working the system to get other agents and buyers into your home. That is the "scientific formula" that most real estate agents use to sell houses and is usually included in most advice on selling your home.

But what about the art? As we write this, we are experiencing a tough real estate market - the toughest in 30 years. Few buyers, many sellers and a not a lot of motivation on either side to give in any more. What can you and your agent do to distinguish your perfectly staged home from all the others? Is there anything you can do to break the log jam? Is there something other than lowering the price that will get people into your home?

The art we are speaking about is called "positioning" in marketing terminology. Is is how a product (meaning your home) is viewed at vis-a-vis all the competing homes in the marketplace. The thing about positioning is that you have to define the "position" for buyers and agents - that is, you tell them exactly how you want them to perceive your home. Think of this as developing a tag line or slogan for your home. You don't want them to come up with that position on their own, you want to define it for them -- and everyone.

Think about the unique attributes of your home. Does it have great entertaining spaces? Then you can describe your home in your marketing and sales pieces as "the best home for holiday entertaining". How about a dedicated home office space with a separate entrance? You could market your home as having "the ideal layout for a home based business". You want the buzz about your home to be positive and memorable. Wouldn't you love to be thought of as "that house with the best entertaining layout" instead of "that 4 bedroom over on 5th street"? Which one would you remember?

By shedding light on the "lifestyle" attributes of your home, you can sell to a buyer's emotions while everyone else is concentrating on price. Price is important, but you also are selling a unique product which needs to be marketed as such.

Another thing to remember is that many buyers are doing all their research online before they even call a real estate agent. Buyers are pretty much dictating which houses they want to see. Give them a memorable "tag line" or "slogan" for your home that matches their wish list, and you will get them to make an appointment.

Getting the appointment plus the great impression you will make by staging the home, are two key first steps to sell your home in a competitive real estate environment.

Our best advice on selling your home? Add a little "art" to your "science" and make your home uniquely memorable.

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