Lemons into lemonade

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Now there is no cure all for coping with lemons when a market goes west, however there are things we can do to maximise our opportunities.

So if you are trying to quit a property here are some ideas to help.

A: 101 Presentation. I was talking to a house stager this week and she said that most people never take the time to think about first impressions when trying to sell a home. Typically the woman makes the buying decision and she does it within 30 seconds of walking in the door. So if you need to sell then you need to make sure you present the home well. Everything clean, smelling good, entrance and grounds all tidy, you know basic stuff that can cost you a sale if you ignore it.

B: Finance. Assuming you already own this property then you are in a position to offer “whatever it takes” to the buyer in terms of finance options. When you are offering something no one else is, it’s amazing how often the price becomes that little less important.
So make sure your advertising states that 100% finance is available, you can purchase this home with no deposit, etc. etc. This is a powerful strategy to find buyers when they are scarce. Between leaving some money in through to offering a lease option you can solve anybody’s finance issue to assist with the sale.

C: Creative solutions. Advertise the home in the swaps and trading sections of your local papers etc. You will be amazed how often someone has something that you can sell and get your money out of a deal. In the last few months I was offered a boat and 2 cranes as part payment on a trade. In one case it didn’t fly but with the other one I was far better off taking the cranes and selling them, nearly 100K better off. You will never find these people through a typical agent or marketing programme, these are horse traders so you need to advertise where they look.

D: Vacant land. Sections often suffer in a soft market so you have to look for solutions to entice buyers. The 2 main ideas are to offer builders terms and pursue every developer builder you can find in an area. Tomorrow I’ll show you what to do and how to work out the numbers.
I’ll also give you more info on the other main strategy which is to sell the site with house plans already attached.

E: Create 1 wow. By this I mean think of one thing you could do to create a wow factor that will assist with getting a buyer over the line. For example if the lounge is perfect design and shape for a huge plasma TV then put one in and include it in the sale. You can rent it till you sell and then buy it once they are unconditional. If you never got round to putting a dishwasher in while you owned the place put a twin dish drawer in now. If yours is a family home consider putting a decent playground or swing set in the backyard, like a really cool one. It’s amazing what you might find on Trademe that costs you not much but adds huge value.

With all these ideas remember it is the WOMAN you want to impress. A huge beer fridge generally won’t cut it.

More solutions tomorrow!!
DEAN