When buyers gain more leverage in a housing market as is the case today along the coast of San Diego, sellers must think out of the box to entice buyers to their homes, then to lock in their asking price. Below are ways to get your home sold and, if not at your price, at least a little closer than what you might have gotten otherwise.
MORTGAGE PAYMENTS FOR 3 TO 6 MONTHS: How would you like to move into a house and make no payments for 3 to 6 months? This stragegy could help out the buyers save money for other projects.
DECORATING ALLOWANCE: Is your decor tired looking and left over from the 80’s or 90’s? Then offer cash for upgrades, new carpet and a paint job after closing. With good bidding on the job, you may be able to keep your price, give the buyer what they want and not spend an arm and a leg.
BUY-DOWN POINTS TO LOWER THE INTEREST RATE: For some buyers, it’s all about the monthly payment. Try coaxingthem into your price with an offer to buy-down their interest rates with points paid by the seller. If they can get the interest rate low enough, they will be able to carry a higher mortgage for a lower monthly payment.
VACATIONS: Buy a house, get a Caribbean Cruise. Take some tips from new home builders— they’re the professionals at this incentive thing. Sometimes, a buyer might get cash back at the settlement takbe, but wouldn’t dare spend it in a luxurious way. When you consider that the inventory has more than doubled, tripled in some San Diego markets, the only thing different from one house to another may be the cruise line.
YEAR-LONG HOA FEES: Looking for a more practical buyer benefit? How about relieving them of those expensive home owner association dues…. that could be up to $6000.00 the first year. Offering this could get the buyer into his first condo.
OFFER SELLER FINANCING: This option is overlooked by a lot of sellers because they or their Realtor just don’t think about it. It can be in several forms: as a first trust deed, second tust deed or even 100 percent financing for the whole house. For the seller who can swing this… it can actually be a cash cow.
PAYING CLOSING COSTS: (up to the mortgage program limit). Here’s the old standby. It’s not as fancy as those above, but it’s very reliable and works very well
