Sellers - The "Down & Dirty" of Selling in this Market!

I am a Full Time Realtor in the Lynchburg Association of Realtors. I struggle daily with having to deliver the bad news to Clients who are considering the issues of Selling their houses. Today I did a Market Analysis for one of my clients and realized I was delivering yet again the same information that I had delivered a few days ago to another client. I had wrote my Seller an email explaining their situation in detail and it dawned on me that this is what I say over and over to Sellers. Normally, it does not matter what area they live in, the style of the house, the price of the house or how long they have owned the house - basically it is the same story.

I reviewed what I had written my Client and I wrote this blog:

Dear Seller,

This is not what information you want to hear. It is not fun to deliver information like this but I do not gloss over the down and dirty details with Sellers. The Housing Market is what it is and I have the unfortunate duty to tell people the way is now!

Your property has gone down in value because of the Housing Market. Your house is worth today as much as it will be for several years unless your area experiences growth. The average time it takes to sell a house is 5 months. The weapons we use to reduce “Days On The Market” are:

· Price

· Condition of House

· Ease of Showing

· Staging of the house – Buyers need to see a their “stuff” in your house

You are not the only ones in this situation – unfortunately I have this conversation daily with other Sellers.

So Now - You have to Decide – are you ready to change your life-style and accept the costs of doing so? This is a hard decision.

Many Sellers are deciding that their Life-Style Changes are more important than staying in houses that no longer work for them. They recognize that the house provided shelter for their families. Their house may not be worth what it was 5 years ago before the “bubble burst” but houses do have value and can be sold. Sellers look at the diminished value but recognize they paid to live in the house they chose and it provided a home for them. Shorter Term Sellers (home owned less than 5 years) are seeing that basically “they paid rent.” Add to this, the fact that interest rates are at Historic Lows – Seller/Buyers are making up some of the diminished value by reducing their mortgage loan interest rates.

Please let me know your thoughts on this information – the Spring Market has already started so you need to get your house on the Market if you make the decision to sell!

Sincerely,

Kathy