NEW YORK: When Brent Moreland and his wife, Amanda, put their first home on the market last fall, they tried everything to make the Knoxville, Tennessee, two-bedroom townhouse look good to buyers.
They took impressive photos with the help of a professional photographer friend, went online for furniture staging ideas and even created a blog to help get the word out through social networks.
Almost six months later, they are still at it, telling interested buyers about new upgrades like crown molding, updated bathrooms and oak laminate floors. But now the Morelands are turning to Plan B: “We’ll keep it listed for sale and post it for rent and see which domino falls first,” says Brent Moreland, a 27-year-old who is relocating for a job in August.
For discouraged homeowners like the Morelands, making a sale can seem impossible in the post-2008 housing market. In January, there were 2.43 million homes for sale, a 6.4 month supply at the current sales pace, according to the National Association of Realtors. But that’s an improvement: One year ago, the Realtors group reported an 8.6 month supply of 3.49 million homes were on the market.
It may get easier soon. Some analysts say SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, the leading measure of the US residential housing market, suggests housing prices may be bottoming out this spring.
“The markets are likely to form a bottom,” says Susan Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
But that improvement may not come quickly enough to help all of the Morelands out there now. Here’s what to do if you need to unload your house, and it’s not selling.
PRICE IT RIGHT
Knowing how to price your property is the most important step for those eager to sell, says Norman Block, a real estate agent in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. Realtors should use the Multiple Listing Service to compare nearby equivalent properties and come up with a fair market price. In an overcrowded housing market, overpriced homes won’t get any showings, says Block.
Sadly, that right price might be less than you paid for it, especially if you bought your home between 2005 and 2008. Pricing the property a little bit lower than the market might help you find buyers more quickly.
SPRUCE IT UP
Think like a buyer when making home improvements, suggests Block, an adjunct professor of real estate at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. Add a fresh coat of paint or new hardware to the front door, trim bushes and de-clutter the front yard so you make a good first impression.
Once inside the home, “buyers tend to look up more than they look down,” Block says. Make sure light fixtures throughout the house are clean and fix cracks in the ceiling or walls. “If everything is caulked up, and everything is sparkling and shining, the subconscious feeling is ‘wow this house has been taken care of,'” he says. Clutter can quickly turn off buyers, he adds.