Selling the worst house on the block
What if you own the worst house on your block? How do you sell it?
I’m not joking. What if a municipal water tower looms over your backyard? What if a rail line is so close that the passing trains rattle your picture frames? What if you can reach over your backyard fence and touch a semi roaring down the highway?
I’m always amazed when I see homes like this on the market. They’ll never sell, I think. Then, I’m even more amazed when they do.
I’ve spoken to real estate agents about this during the years for a variety of newspaper feature stories. Just how do they move a house that has an irreparable negative feature? An owner whose house lacks attractive landscaping or fresh paint can solve his problem. An owner whose home sits next to an electric tower? She won’t be able to rip that tower out of the ground anytime soon.
Agents always give me the same answer: There’s a buyer for every house. You just have to find that buyer.
Here’s what that means: If you’re trying to sell a house with a negative that can’t be fixed – even simple ones, such as your residence sitting on a busy street instead of a quieter side street – you have to take one big step to sell that home; You have to set the right price.
This means that if your house would fetch $300,000 if it sat in the middle of a nice, quiet residential neighborhood, you may have to price it at $220,000 if it rests on the edge of a noisy commercial district.
Setting the right price for a home is everything. That especially holds true if your home’s location isn’t ideal. This isn’t the time to get greedy. Remember, you probably paid less for the house when you bought it for the same reason.
Agents recommend one other thing: Don’t try to hide the irreparable negative. If there’s a water tower immediately behind your house, don’t cut it out of marketing photos. Potential buyers won’t be happy to drive up and see that water tower. If you leave it in the photos, though, the buyers who do visit your home will have already been prepared. It won’t be a shock any longer.
So don’t fret if that new highway practically kisses your back porch. Just set the right price. Someone will want to buy it. Besides, you can tout the home’s “easy access to transportation.”
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POSTED IN: Buying a Property, Educational Tools, Insights and Commentaries, Real Life Stories
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