August 15th, 2022 6:01 AM
In the current economy, it’s often difficult to sell a home for a good price, especially if you want to sell it quickly. While the average homeowner is unaware, there are techniques that real estate investors sometimes use to sell properties quickly at very good prices. This article details one of those techniques.
In a nutshell, the plan is to create a big stir, and then do a round-robin auction on your house. It’s not uncommon to get a higher price than the house is actually worth!
Make plans with your realtor to follow these steps for a 7-day sales strategy:
- List your house. While it isn’t required that you have your house listed on the MLS, it will make things a lot easier. There really isn’t a more effective way to let the world know about your property. Let the listing go live on a Monday. Include these details in the listing:
- List your house at a 10% discount off of what it’s actually worth. Most people make the mistake of listing their $200,000 house for $220,000, with the hopes of eventually getting $200,000. List that $200,000 house for $180,000 and people will pay attention. You’ll get the other $20,000 in the end.
- State that there are no showings until Friday. In fact, state that the showings are only allowed between 9:00 am and 11:00 am on Friday.
- State that there will be a second showing on Saturday. Again, limit this showing to between 9:00 am and 11:00 am. Be sure all the time constraints are in the listing itself.
- Open the doors Friday and Saturday morning. With some good promotion, at 9:00 on Friday and Saturday morning, there will be anywhere from 10-20 parties ready to get into the house and take a look.
- What happens when a family pulls up to view the house and there are already 10 other cars there? They’re thinking, “Wow, this is a really great deal. We need to act fast.”
- As the agents and prospective buyers enter the house, they should be told, “This house will sell this weekend; we’re going to take the highest offer we get by Sunday night.”
- Start the “auction.” By Saturday night you’re likely to have 5+ offers on the property. Here is where you put the auction into play. For the time being, ignore the highest bidder. Sunday morning, you (or your agent) are going to call the others and say: “I really appreciate the offer you put in, but you’re not the highest offer. But you have until 9:00 tonight to submit another offer. The house will sell at 9:00 tonight.”
- Remember, these people have already been in the house and feel competitive. It’s like when you bid on something on eBay. If the bid is just a little bit higher than you want to spend, you’re probably willing to raise your limit just a little bit.
- Continue calling everyone that is not the latest highest bidder until 9:00 pm. You simply repeat step 3 until the time runs out.
- That’s it – you’re done! You can now proceed with setting up the closing.
This process is highly effective and reliable. There is no reason for you to be stuck trying to sell your house for months and eventually sell it for a lower price than you deserve.
It might take a little bit of work to find an agent to use this non-traditional technique, but you won’t have to call many to find one that’s game.