Secret Tactics to Sell a House
Every seller we talk to in the Leavenworth market wants a real estate agent who will be aggressive about selling their home or property. That makes sense to us. Year in and year out we have clients come to us and ask us to list their home because they have tried other agents in the past and been disappointed with the results.
It’s always exciting to share results like these:
Listing in town, listed for 2 summers, very little interest. In the first three months of our listing this house – 2 offers!
Listing in Peshastin, listed with two agents for two different summers. No interest. 12 days on market and we received an offer!
Photo courtesy of Val Pearl on Flickr
Call us crazy, but we decided to give away some of our “super secret” recipe for success.
Pricing is Paramount
Putting the right price on a property is the most important thing you can do. No amount of marketing magic can solve a mispriced home. We routinely see homes in Leavenworth that are priced $100,000 more than the market value. Sometimes it’s much worse than that.
Home buyers are pretty smart. They have amazing tools at their disposal. You cannot trick a buyer into overpaying for your home.
If you have a house priced at $450,000 the buyers looking at your home are those buyers willing to spend between $450-$500,000. You are missing out on the $400,000 buyer and the $350,000 buyer. You won’t get low offers on an overpriced home. You probably won’t even get many showings.
If you have a house priced at $1,600,000 you are missing out on all the buyers. There never has been a house that has sold for that much money in Leavenworth. Your agent is telling you stories if they think they know what a $1.6 million house looks like. (I do know what a a $1.3 million house looks like.. I sold one.)
Without Great Photos, Your House is Invisible
A photo is worth a thousand words. In the Leavenworth real estate market, good photos are worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Over and over again we have seen the difference in the number of showings, the number of phone calls and emails we get for a property with great professional photos. If another agent has great photos on a listing, we get lots of calls on those listings too.
The photos of the house get spread far and wide on the internet. 20 years ago, buyers used to do a “drive by” before making an appointment. Good photos online are how home buyers do a virtual “drive by.” No need to drive over from Redmond or Lake Sammamish or fly in from L.A. or New York if the house doesn’t look good online.
I used to enjoy taking my own photos, but not only is photo gear expensive, it’s hard work learning to process the digital images so that the house really shines.
Kitchen at Lake Wenatchee Log Home
We currently use Jesse Cunningham photography of Ellensburg and have been blown away by the results.
Easy to Show, Easy to Sell
The availability of the house for showings can sometimes make or break the listing. “Listing agent must be present at all showings” is the kiss of death and “24 hour notice for renters” can be pretty tricky too. Popular vacation rentals that are booked on the weekend sometimes can be a challenge to sell.
“Key at listing office” – That can be tough on agents and often prevents a showing. The listing office needs to be staffed and have long hours if you want to pull that off. If the house for sale is in Plain or Lake Wenatchee, why is the key in Leavenworth… or worse Wenatchee?
“Vacant, show anytime. Lockbox on frontdoor” – now that’s a listing that’s ready to sell.
There Isn’t a Marketing Silver Bullet
Do we have more tricks up our sleeves when it comes to marketing? We just might.
Unfortunately, those tricks won’t do us much good if we don’t get the basics right.
