Getting those houses sold ASAP - by Cameron Dunlap

I have been asked a number of times recently to write on the subject of selling houses. I will discuss how the ease or difficulty we experience when selling our houses has everything to do with how and where we buy.

In today's market where houses tend to sell quickly you would think that this would not be a problem. But for some it is. Why?

When doing my research on this topic I turned inward and took a hard look at my own market. As most of you know I moved last April from South Florida to Upstate NY. And no I'm not insane! My new market was, and to a degree still is foreign to me and what is most challenging is selling the houses. I can buy them all day and at amazing prices but selling them is not so simple. So I must buy with my exit strategy in mind. You must do this in your market too.

Let me give you an idea of what my market is like. I live in Steuben County, which is in the Finger Lakes and Wine Country region of Western NY. My market, within a 45-minute drive, consists of about 35,000 households. There are a number of towns and all but 2 are quite small. Within this area we go from one extreme to the other. On and right around the lake, properties sell very quickly and for top dollar. But just a few miles away things move much more slowly and then there also a few towns that are what I would call "dead" and I won't go near them with any exit strategy. They are not war zones by any means, there aren't any here, they're just dead. So you can see that we all face specific challenges in our respective markets. I know you have yours too.

While doing deals and before you make the offer you must always ask yourself. "What is my exit strategy"? Your financial situation may have lot to do with your decision. If it is to sell for cash, you need to be sure that it's viable. It will need to be in an area where houses are selling quickly and to qualified buyers. A good way to know if houses in a specific neighborhood are selling to "A" buyers is to look for agency signs in front yards, call the listing agents and ask. In order to cash out quickly the house needs to be in pristine condition yes, but also highly marketable, with no quirky layout, appearance, location, street, etc. What I mean by quirky is strange or funky in some way that will later end up a marketing problem. One of the greatest challenges you and I will face is cashing out of a quirky house. When you are considering buying a house you need to ask your self, "is there anything about this house that, even after making it pretty, will make it hard to sell?" If there is, then your purchase price needs to reflect the challenges you are inevitably going to face. Namely in the form of additional debt service, holding costs, liability etc. and they can add up fast. So you need to be discounting for this. Facing reality on the quirkiness of a house is something we must do. When I was new to the business I used to get "gotta-do-a-deal-itis" and would sometimes ignore the quirks. Big mistake! "Gotta-do-a-deal-itis" is a common affliction when we're new to the biz. Especially when we are not aware of it.

When you are dealing in "B,C, & D" neighborhoods, or in my case in one of the towns around here where houses can take 2 years or more to sell for cash, then our only exit strategy is to sell on a Lease Option or Land Contract or some other form of "Terms". It is critical that we do not get confused here. We must not buy in B,C & D neighborhoods and expect to cash out. It won't work and we will only end up switching to plan B (selling on terms) anyway. And this will cost us. When we plan to sell on terms in these neighborhoods, prior to making the offer, we must also ask ourselves. "Is this a house I want to own, and perhaps for a long time?"

In my business I prefer to sell on terms and for a number of reasons. Here are a few. First is you make much more money on the house and with less effort than you ever could retailing it. Second, you can depreciate it on your taxes. Third, when we own the property for more than a year (in most cases) the gain is subject to capital gains as apposed to our earned income rate and for most of us, that's a boon.

To summarize, know your exit strategy then make your offer accordingly. And when it comes time to sell, get aggressive about it and don't procrastinate. It's easy to be so focused on buying that you end up with inventory that is sitting and costing you. Stay focused on getting your houses sold because until you do. there's no paycheck.

On this subject, I've just put an audio program together called "Sell Fast - Make More!" In it you will learn tons of great ideas for selling your houses more quickly that are real world tested and that work. Selling your houses quickly, without question, means more profit in your pocket. The program is only $129 and you can learn more about it by going to the Courses Page