John M. Lee: Selling in Today's Market

With the real estate market slowing down, it is much harder to sell a home in today's environment. Properties linger on the market for a long amount of time and prices have declined somewhat. So, if you are a seller that absolutely needs to sell, how would you go about it to insure a successful sale?

The number of sales in San Francisco has decreased substantially. According to the San Francisco Association of Realtor's multiple listing statistics, there were about 5,150 transactions in 2010 as compared with the peak volume year of 8,100 in 2004, a decrease of 36 percent. Also, the days on the market prior to sale has increased substantially so sales are taking longer to complete. Therefore, with the statistics against you, here are some hints for success.

First of all, be sure that your property is in tip-top shape so it can stand out against your competition. Make sure that the buyer's first impression is good and the home is clean on the outside, with perhaps a new paint job, and the lawn is mowed and there is no garbage or junk exposed.

Inside the home, clean and paint if necessary, remove clutter and move some of the extra furniture to storage if needed. If possible, hire a staging company to stage the home and make it a showcase. Professionals have a better feel on what buyers are looking for and can tailor your home to appeal to the broadest range of buyers.

Hire a good agent who works in your area and who can tell you about prices and the homes currently for sale in the neighborhood. Ask the agent how your home will be marketed? Is the marketing plan well devised and thought out? Is there a multifaceted attack to expose the home properly? How will the home be marketed on the Internet? Statistics are showing that more than 80 percent of potential buyers look on the web first before visiting the listing. Is yours going to be on enough Internet websites? How will the photos and presentations look online?

Ask your agent for his or her opinion of value and prepare a comparative market analysis of homes that are currently on the market and that have sold recently. Pay particular attention to the price as that is crucial to today's marketing.

With listing and sales data so readily available, buyers have a good sense on price. So, if you are priced high expecting to get offers to negotiate up with, you might not even get an offer to begin the process. Buyers will look at your home, compare it with other homes that are on the market, and make offers on the ones that are priced more attractively first. So, yours might just remain on the market for a long time.

If your property does not sell within a month or so, and all the marketing has been done properly, re-evaluate your asking price and see if that's what is preventing buyers from making offers. If it is, then a price adjustment is necessary.

In a hot market, pricing is not a critical issue unless it is way off. However, in today's market, pricing must be accurate and extremely attractive for buyers to be motivated enough to make an offer.

There are no magic pills in selling in today's market. We are back to a market where there is more balance between buyers and sellers. That's where hard work pays off.

Please also keep in mind that the market is constantly changing and pricing also is constantly moving. It might not always be changing in a positive direction, so if you need to sell, stay ahead of the pricing trends; otherwise you might be chasing it down.

John M. Lee is a top-selling agent at Pacific Union. For real estate questions, call (415) 447-6231.