Yesterday I did a post on the importance of real estate timing and knowing when to sell. Today I'm going to give you a few tips on selling investment properties.
In many cases when we sell investment properties they are empty. No matter how gorgeous the home might be it puts us at a disadvantage with most buyers because they can't visualize their belongings in an empty home. I had this happen a number of times where I was selling a freshly rehabbed property or even a great lease option property that was empty. The home was in great shape, in many cases it was one of the best in the neighborhood without being overpriced, and yet because it was empty buyers couldn't picture living in it.
Here are a few tips I've come up with to help overcome this:
1. Stage the home - This isn't always an affordable option but when you can it's worth it. Hire a home stager to furnish the home (even just key rooms in the home). Time and time again home stagers have proven that when they make a home gorgeous you'll get offers more quickly and for closer to your asking price.
2. Turn on the lights - I know we like to keep our costs down so we don't eat up our profits but home buyers aren't going to be interested in the home if they can't see if and everything looks dark. Put in some lamp timers for rooms that get plenty of natural light during the day. But any space that isn't well lit during the day should have the lights on all day. Don't make the buyers turn on the lights!
3. Flowers and plants - Buyers love to see fresh flowers and green plants. Don't buy artificial ones! They are massive dust catchers. Put in the real deal and make sure they are taken care of.
4. Chocolate - Put a bowl of wrapped chocolates in the front entry right next to a stack of flyers about the home. After all who doesn't love chocolate? It's cheap and it's a nice little trick to get the buyers attention to take a flyer with them.
5. Fresh scent - get some Glade plugins or something similar and have a couple of them in the house. A pleasant smell appeals to buyers, but an overwhelming smell doesn't so don't overdo it. Make sure you replace them if they run out.
With the exception of home staging most of these home selling tips are extremely affordable. Even if you use real estate timing to time your sale, so you'll be selling when everyone else is buying it's still a good idea to make your home as desirable as possible for your buyers. The faster it sells the sooner you'll get paid and can then move on to the next market where the real estate timing charts say it's time to buy.
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