How Do I Sell An Expensive House?

When discussing how to sell an expensive house, there are two scenarios in which the issue comes up. The first is you have a home in an expensive neighborhood, but one which you?re asking for a price comparable to similar homes around you. In such a situation, you should be able to sell your expensive house through traditional means, either as a FSBO listing or through a realtor. The home should be cleaned up and listed with a multiple listing service. Open houses should be undertaken as well as online advertising with photographs. In this current market, you should be able to move the home fairly quickly.

The second expensive house scenario is a bit more complicated. In this scenario, you have improved your home beyond a value supported by surrounding structures. This can often occur if you live in a home for a substantial period of time and make additions to the home such as new rooms, floors, renovated kitchens and so on. The homes in your neighborhood all appraise for roughly $300,000, but your additions should make the house worth upwards of $450,000. You have a problem because nobody is going to buy the most expensive home on the block.

What To Do?

You?re first choice is to hold onto the home and hope the neighbors get around to improving their homes. This strategy is rife with problems and should probably be avoided.

A better choice is to target market your home to a specific demographic. If you?ve added rooms to your home, you should create advertisements directed at families with multiple children matching the number of bedrooms you have. If you?ve gone nuts with improvements in the kitchens and fixtures, you should market the home as ?luxury without the price.? The point is to turn your problem into a unique selling position for the house. Trust me, there is a buyer out there looking for a solution to their problem.

Appraisal Problems

If you house is over-improved, every potential sale will fall through because the appraised price will make it difficult for the buyer to get a loan. The best way for dealing with this is to ?carry a second? mortgage on the home. In essence, you agree to take a certain percentage of the price in payments over a certain time period. This allows the buyer to get into the house and you to get out. If you go this direction, make absolutely sure you use a lawyer to make sure everything is legal.

Trying to sell an expensive house can be a challenge. That doesn?t mean it can?t be done.

Posted by Jeannie Boyd on December 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM

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