Selling your house in a down market

Some research suggests that sales tanked by 26 percent in 2007—the worst sales year on record.

And existing home sales are struggling too.

Those numbers plummeted 13 percent last year the biggest drop in 25 years.

All of this comes as analysts predict even more trouble in 2008.

But North Carolina realtors say while we’re not enjoying the appreciation we saw in 2006 and 2007 things aren’t as bad here in the Triangle.

“For 2008, we will probably remain fairly constant with where we were for 2007,” said John Wood, president-elect of the Raleigh Regional Board of Realtors. “And a reminder: Our 2007 market was for Wake County, excuse me, for the Triangle, was our third-best year ever in Real Estate sales.”

With that in mind NBC17 found five things you could do that may help your home sell faster in this buyer’s market.

“I spent a lot of money on the landscaping and we had the back porch screened in,” said Sam Causon.

After three years Causon is selling her Wake Forest home. It’s been on the market for about six months.

“I started worrying a little because we were getting a lot of showings but no offers,” said Samantha Causon.

She was worried in part because of the nationwide housing crisis and because Wake Forest’s Market is flooded.

“People just have so much choice that if there’s one little thing they don’t like about your house, they’re gonna go for something else,” Causon said.

Which brings us to the first point: Selling your home puts you in the retail business and retailers look at the competition.

“If all your competitors have granite counter tops and you don’t, you gotta take that into consideration that somebody might continue to choose another home over yours,” Wood said.

Tim Burrell is Sam Causon’s Real Estate broker. In addition to the obvious like sprucing up the paint and landscaping he recommends online marketing on sites like You Tube and Craig’s List to expose the property to as many people as possible.

“Where a lot of the more sophisticated Internet people will look and other folks don’t know about that,” Burrell said. “A great place is Realtor.com, but everybody knows about that.”

Another technique some will use to help push a sale is a gimmick.

Realtors say some people have offered season tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes, a Nintendo Wii system, even cash all as added incentives for a prospective buyer to pick their home. But realtors say offering freebies is a bit desperate and rarely gets you the sale.

“In the end, basically what happened was, we put the price down to a really, really attractive one, which is when we found a buyer,” Causon said.

Causon cut the price about $30,000. She says her house went from about $320,000 to $290,000, selling it for the exact same price she bought it for three years ago.

There is one other option if you need to get your house off your hands as soon as possible. You can auction it off. But it’s not a foreclosure auction and it’s not for everyone.

“People will do a tremendous amount of advertising and interest generating over a 30-day period or so, have a very specific time and sell the property right then. And if your goal is to get the property sold —if you’re goal-oriented as opposed to price-oriented, then this will accomplish your goal,” Burrell said.

Causon says of all the things she tried dropping the price ultimately was what got her home off the market.

Realtors warn that the nation’s housing crisis is creating an added challenge for home sellers here in the Triangle.

They say since the mortgage industry has tightened up people who want to move here from out of state can no longer buy a new home here and maintain two mortgages for a period of time—unlike a year ago.

And that, according to real estate experts, has had an effect on sales here.