I get literally hundreds of emails a day throughout all of my email accounts for my companies and I do my best to go through them all and answer them individually.  If you sent in a question and haven’t gotten an answer yet hold tight… I’ll get to ya!

Anyhow, I got a question in last week from Greg in Portland, Oregon (welcome fellow Oregonian!)… and his question was this:

Hello my name is Greg [last name deleted].  I have enjoyed your emails.  I have a question.  I live in Portland and will be trying to sell my house in August-September time frame.  I have heard the market is not that good right now.  Would you have any ideas that would help me sell it quickly??

My sister had heard about someone that raffled off their house.  If that is an idea how would I go about it??

Thank you

Greg

And, I thought some of you might be able to benefit from my answer to so here’s my answer. Keep in mind, I didn’t go into any detail on strategies to actually go out and find buyers… I focused more on the root foundation of selling your house.  Without getting these right having a bagillion buyers walk through your house won’t really matter much.

Enjoy

——–

Hey Greg,

Great to chat w/ a fellow Oregonian! (I just moved from Lake Oswego down I-5 to Roseburg… lol… ya a big change .

Well… there are more houses selling today than there was 6 months ago… so things in my opinion are getting better.

And, what people say about the “market” is usually just a huge generalization and not indicative of what it might be like to sell your house.

Yes, if you have a house that doesn’t stand out to a buyer in one way or another (price, location, layout of the house, etc.) then yes… it might be tough to sell because there are a lot of homes on the market right now for buyers to choose from.

So… you need to separate your house from the others like yours. If you plan on getting top dollar… you’ll be holding your house for a LONG time… buyers realize it’s a buyers market and will go to the next house if they feel yours is too spendy.

As far as the raffle… ya… I’ve heard of that too but I don’t think it’s a good idea for the average person. In order for that to make sense you’ll have to sell thousands and thousands of raffle tickets… which means you have to market the heck out of the raffle… and that will be a ton of work….
and even then you’re not guaranteed to sell enough raffle tickets to get what you want/need out of the house. Good idea in theory but you have to be a marketing machine to sell enough tickets to make it worth while.

Also, make sure your house is in “sellable” condition.

• Clean up the house and get rid of ALL of the clutter.   Rent a storage unit if you have to… but get the clutter  out of every room. Buyers don’t want to see your crap  piled up on the mantle, or all over the walls or stuffed in closets… you have to enable them to “see their own  stuff” in your house… and w/ clutter it’s tough for  some buyers to do that.
• Make sure your walls are more neutral colors and look fresh. Freshen up the walls w/ new paint… don’t choose crazy colors… go w/ a baige or light tan or other earth tones.
• Spend a thousand on upgrading the master bath or a few thousand on the kitchen. Those are huge selling points and you’ll usually get all or most of your investment back… but what it will do is help you sell your house more quickly.
• Throw in some cool stuff for the buyer. Maybe throw in a 46″ LCD flat screen TV for the buyer (only cost $1k)… or  something like that. People like to feel like they’re getting stuff for “free”… and that can sway a buying decision.
• Make sure the curb appeal is there. If your lawn is a pile of crap and the outside of your house looks like it has gone through a hurricane and a summer in the Mohave Desert…  it’s gonna be tough to sell. Get your lawns green, plant some flowers, etc.

Those little things go a long way.

Basically, I don’t think you need to do any fancy raffles or auctions or anything. Just make your house stand out from the others like yours… give potential buyers a great first impression… and price it to sell (don’t be too greedy in today’s market… or you’ll be holding onto that house for a long time).

I know all of that sounds simple and a no brainer… but that’s what sells houses.

Invite a group of friends into your house and ask them to walk through it like they were interested in buying… then have them tell you what they TRULY thought about it as a “buyer” as they walked through.  Then, multiply that by 10x and you’ll have an idea of what an actual buyer will think.

Good luck! A ton of houses are selling right now… you just need to stand out in price, quality of house, terms, or features to make the sale.  A cluttered
house that hasn’t been freshened up isn’t going to catch full price today.

- Trevor

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Categories: real estate investing techniques, sales techniques
Tags: 7 tips on selling homes, how to sell a house, oregon homes, portland, selling homes in todays market, tips on selling a house