There are several things you can do to help your house sell quickly, but are you making it a point to create buyer incentive? As lovely as your house may be, often times a potential buyer may need some extra motivation to place an offer. Taking the time to consider your buyer and what will make them feel like your home is too good to pass on is vital to helping your house sell fast! Check out how creating buyer incentive can increase your chances of a sale in the rest of this article!

Selling a House on the Open Market

If you or anyone you know has thought about selling a house lately, chances are you’ve probably been thinking about listing it on the open market using a real estate agent. For the better part of the last century, this definitely has been one of the few ways to effectively sell your house. But times change, and so too do the ways in how you can actually sell a house. 

Selling your house on the open market may work, but doing this has a few critical flaws that might make you think twice. Here are two things you’ll want to consider when it comes to selling on the open market:

  • Market Trends – One important factor are the trends of the housing market itself. There are periods when houses are typically valued higher than they are actually worth and sell very quickly, called highs. 

Then there are other times when houses won’t receive offers anywhere near the asking price and will likely sit on the market for weeks or months, known as lows. Right now the market is trending downward, meaning it will be tougher to sell your house on the open market in the foreseeable future compared to previous years.

  • Expenses – You may not be aware of this, but selling a house can be brutally expensive. Before your house sells you might pay for repairs, staging, and an inspection, which can easily reach several thousand depending on what you need to fix. While the house is up for sale you’ll need to continue paying utilities regardless of whether you’re actually living in it. 

After the house does sell, the really expensive bills come out. Real estate commissions are often the biggest offender here, easily reaching five figures depending on your home’s value. There’s also the remainder of any outstanding mortgage balances, closing costs, and taxes.

With all of the expenses included in selling a house, you can easily have paid 10% or more of your sale price to others when the process is finished.

Buyer Incentive to Improve Your Odds of Making a Sale

When you put these two ideas together, you have an environment where you’re taking a big risk by spending a lot of money, but your likelihood of a sale is largely out of your control. Risk does open you up to the potential of greater rewards (in this case a higher sale price), but it also means there’s an excellent chance you’ll end up with less than you started with. This makes it painfully simple to make costly errors that you won’t ever recoup your investment from.

It is true that market trends can make it near impossible to sell your house, but you can still improve the odds of making a sale actually occur. To do this, you’ll need to give your buyer a really good reason to buy your house. You need to give them extra motivation outside of “I like this house” to actually make an offer in a slow housing market.

This is done by creating incentive for your buyer. Incentives are extra bonuses that you can offer to potential buyers, mainly in the form of financial discounts and savings. Often times this does come at your expense, but it will increase your likelihood of making a sale, and can even help you ensure you get closer to your asking price.

Your ultimate goal is to entice a potential buyer with an extra perk that they simply can’t resist, justifying their decision to purchase the house.

Here are the two of the most effective methods of generating buyer incentive:

  • Pay Points for a Lower Interest Rate – Offering to pay points for a lower interest rate will almost certainly sway any potential buyers sitting on the fence. This entails agreeing to pay a percentage of your home’s sale price as a discount to lower the buyer’s interest rate. Over time, this quickly adds up because they’ll end up paying significantly less in monthly payments. For those on a budget in particular, a lower interest rate is phenomenal for helping fit a new home in.
  • Credits for Closing Costs – Another excellent thing you can do is commit to paying a percentage of the final sale price for closing costs. Sellers and buyers have seperate closings costs they are responsible for, but you can also agree to cover the buyer’s portion. Most of this will come from fees associated with acquiring a mortgage, homeowner’s insurance, and homeowner’s association dues, which can easily reach five figures. Agreeing to pay a buyer’s selling costs gives them great peace of mind because they won’t be expecting any surprise costs when finalizing the purchase. 

Guarantee Yourself a Hassle Free House Sale

Trying to sell your house on the open market today is certainly possible, but isn’t always easy. If you do plan on selling, you’ll want to pay attention to the market trends and the expenses you’ll incur throughout the process. You’ll also want to focus on creating buyer incentive so that a potential buyer just won’t be able to pass on your house. Doing all of this can be effective, but it won’t guarantee a sale on your house.

Creating buyer incentive can certainly help you sell a house faster, but you may feel that it just isn’t worth the hassle. Fortunately, there’s a much easier solution for you if you have a home in the Indianapolis area! Selling your home directly to a home buyer like Ben Buys Indy Homes will not only guarantee you a successful sale, but it will also take all the hassle out of selling! We’ll give you a competitive price that gives you the freedom to focus on living life. Give us a call today to receive your quick cash offer!