Selling a House in a Buyers Market

A buyers market is essentially any real estate market where there are more sellers than potential buyers. The disparity in favour of buyers gives them the upper hand in real estate negotiations. Selling while in the midst of a buyers market is never advisable, unless liquidating the property is an absolute necessity. Still, selling a house in a buyers market does not have to be a painful experience. If you are willing to change your game plan a little, there are steps that can be taken to improve the sales process.

Your first enemy will be setting your goals way too high. No one likes to sell their home for less than they paid for it, but market conditions are what they are. If the market is down then your price more or less has to be as well. A buyers market means that you need to be willing to compromise on your price. Compromising on your price doesn’t necessarily mean you have to make a drastic price reduction. The trap you are likely to fall into is one where you have your heart set on a certain price and are unwilling to waiver on that price.

At times, if you don’t have any competitive advantage over your competitors such as value added items e.g. full set of marble dining table, solar generator with back up battery from Tesla, full LED bulbs, or at least not-so run down house etc. then the only you can do to compete perhaps is to lowering your price.

It may come as a shock, but there actually are other people around you who are also selling their house. Other home sellers in your area are kind of like your competition and it’s a good idea to see things they are doing to sell their home that you might not be. You can investigate another home in your area by pretending to be a home buyer and showing up at open houses. Once inside, take a look around the house and make a note of any differences you notice. Take a few minutes too to talk to the homeowners and ask them questions. Though in Malaysia, open house for sub-sale is less favourable as to compare with overseas. Malaysian tend to leave the job for estate agents if not by the landlord themselves.

When it comes to selling a home, curb appeal is everything. A recent study found that almost 90% of prospective buyers can determine within ten seconds of looking at a property whether or not they are interested. This means that you need to spare no expense in updating and modernising the outside of your home. Selling a home with a lot of curb appeal will increase the number of people who will be looking at your home. More prospective buyers means a higher selling price.

Making a unique offer to buyers is a sure fire way to increase interest in your home. A unique offer is one that really stands out from most other offers. To make a really unique offer you need to take some time and get to know each individual buyer. Suppose you happen to learn that a buyer is really into decoration. You could then offer the buyer a range of wall paints up to certain amount or brand of their likes or perhaps a special wallpaper that becomes trendy in Malaysia nowadays. Sometimes something tangible is way more valuable than the actual monetary cost. Be creative, do some research, and you will have no problems selling your home.

If you have a property and not sure if you should sell or hold it, then read our previous post To Flip or To Hold - Which is Better?