Handy tips give sellers an edge

By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Here are four ideas from SmartMoney.com that are guaranteed to help jump-start the sale of your house:

1. Stage your home—better yet, hire a home stager.
“A well-decorated home will sell faster and for more money than one that looks frumpy,” says Patricia Dugan, a realtor with The Corcoran Group in Manhattan. “That’s why more sellers are hiring home stagers to do everything from rearranging furniture and painting walls a neutral color to renting artwork,” she says. “This service can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a small job to several thousand dollars for high-end properties.”

2. Photograph your home—better yet, hire a professional photographer.
According to the National Association of Realtors, up to 80% of home buyers start their searches online. The Internet has become an important marketing tool; most realtors have their clients hire a professional photographer, which can cost as little as $100 for online snapshots. Potential buyers who are “window shopping” online want to see the merchandise. In this case, a picture is worth at least a thousand words.

3. Try marketing incentives.
Many sellers are sweetening the pot by including bonuses such as basketball game tickets and vacation getaways along with the sale of their home.

Rather than slash the asking price, a condo owner might offer to pay the maintenance fees for a full year, or provide buyers with a cash rebate that’s marketed as a decorating allowance.

“Nine times out of ten, such gimmicks cost less than it would to drop the asking price enough to attract a buyer with a smaller budget,” says Nelson Zide, co-owner of ERA Key Realty Services, a Framingham, Mass.-based real estate brokerage.