Move Your Home In A Slow Real Estate Market With Incentives

It slices, it dices, but that’s not all… We’ve all seen those infomercials offering all types of incentives to get us to buy that useless little gadget. Well, you should do the same with your house in a slow market.

The are called incentives and they are your friend. They represent one way to make your home stand out from those around you. In a slow market, they represent one of the few things other than price that can give you an advantage over your neighbors who are also trying to sell. So, what exactly are the incentives you can offer to buyers?

The first thing to offer is a home warranty. This pays for any unexpected repairs needed for the home. Don’t guarantee the home yourself. You can buy a policy from an insurer in the name of the buyer. It will run you $400 or so and make the buyer a lot more comfortable with your property.

Along this line of thought, you can also get a pre-sale home inspection done. You should then make the report available to the buyers. This will also allow you to address any problems that turn up. The buyers looking at your home will appreciate it, but don’t expect them to rely on it. They will want to do their own as a matter of due diligence, but it still adds to your credibility.

No home is perfect for any buyer. A huge incentive that can close a deal is to offer an allowance for redoing parts of the interior. This can include the replacement of the carpet, counters, appliances, some painting or whatever. Just express it in a dollar figure.

Since you are an adult reading this article, you are undoubtedly already aware of the joys of moving. It is a nightmare for the buyer, but an incentive opportunity for you. Offer to let buyers store things in your garage and/or house. Strangely, sellers rarely do this, instead treating buyers like they are the plague. If you help a buyer out in this way, they are going to have a positive view of you and be more likely to work with you if any problems come up during closing.

The final incentive is the biggest. Offer the potential buyer seller financing. That means you are financing part of the purchase of your home. It sounds strange, but can make the difference between a sold home and one sitting on the market. Offering a second mortgage on a home is fairly common and not particularly risky.

There are always incentives you can come up with to move your home when the market is dragging. The key is to really listen to what buyers are beefing about and try to come up with a solution. If you do, your house will move like it is a red hot sellers market.