Flipping a fixer upper – Selling the house

Your goal when flipping a house should be to get it back on the market and sell it as quickly as possible. With this in mind it is easy to rush the process and list the house before it is ready This is a mistake. Never list a house before you are done. Your goal should be to sell it quickly but not before it is done and you are ready to get the best possible price for the property.

Setting the price

You did hopefully set a target price for the house before you started to renovate the house. I do however despite this recommend that you once again look at compressible and see what price you think your house might sell for. The prices in the area might have gone up (or down) during the time you have been working on the house. Ask different brokers what they would list the house for.

Broker or no broker

The next decision you have to make is whether you should hire a broker to sell the house or whether you want to try to sell it yourself. Using a broker is easier and will often give you a better price but will also force you to pay the brokers commission. Selling it yourself will be harder and require more work but you will get to keep all the money (- taxes). I generally recommend using a broker. At-least for the first few properties you flip. The one exception from this is if you work in an area where house prices are low and margins small. In these areas it can be better to sell the house yourself.

Home staging

Staging the house allows you to get a higher price for your house because it is easier for the buyer to imagine how the house might look. Hiring a company to style your house can be expensive. You often have to pay many thousands. I do not home stage houses unless they expect to bring in more than 250 000. I do not find it to be worth the cost when selling cheaper houses.

An option is to stage it yourself with furniture you have but it is important to remember that it is better to show an unstaged house then it is to show a poorly staged house. The staging must display a dream. If you can not achieve this then it is better to let the buyers use their imagination.

Open House

You will need to hold one or several open houses when people can come and look at your house. The open house is a really important event and it is very important that you do the most of it. You need to make sure that the house is clean and presents well. It is also a good idea to have light refreshments out for the guests. I recommend using fresh cinnamon buns since they will spread a wonderful smell in the house.

The open house is also an opportunity for potential buyers to ask you questions about the house and the neighborhood. It is very important that you do your research so that you can answer those questions confidently. You need to know about local schools, parks and other amenities as well as the selection of local shops and restaurants. It is also very important that you know about public transport connections to the city center. More and more people chose to use public transport.

Make sure to always be at the open house an hour before so that you have time to set everything up before any quests come. Plan to stay one hour after the open house closes so you got time to calmly answer all questions that last minute visitors might have.

Conditional and unconditional offers

Unconditional offers are always better than conditional ones. If you accept a conditional bid then you risk the sale falling through because the buyers couldn’t find credit or because they could not sell their house. An unconditional offer guarantees that you get your house sold. An unconditional offer is worth more than a conditional one and you should therefore chose the unconditional one unless the conditional is for substantially more money.

Comments are currently closed.