Selling a home that has an incurable defect is never easy. However, it becomes even more difficult when it’s a buyer’s market. The inventory is high at this stage of the game. Not only are there more homes to compete with, but also there are more homes with incurable defects to compete with at the same time. Buyers have the opportunity to be even choosier and their expectations of getting a good deal will be even higher.

Not every home has an incurable defect and some incurable defects are worse than others. Unfortunately, these types of homes are more difficult to sell in the first place. Plus, the asking price usually needs to be lower than what a seller can realize on a perfect home. Neither one of these is good for the seller.

Incurable defects include such things as terrible floor plans, awkward window and door placement, and unfavorable locations. Unfavorable locations typically include those that place the home next to a noisy freeway, busy airport, landfill, trash center, or some other undesirable location. No matter how well-constructed the home is or how attractive it looks, a home in this type of location is generally going to be harder to sell, especially when the market is slow.

The trick to selling a home with a so-called incurable defect is to price it correctly in the first place. Since homes with defects that cannot be corrected are less appealing than homes without such defects, the pool of potential buyers is going to be considerably smaller, limiting the ability to sell quickly even more.

At a time when the housing market is glutted with properties, the buyers become more discerning about what they will buy as well as what they will pay. If the home has undesirable features as well as an unfavorable price, the potential buyer might just run screaming from the property. If you think this isn’t so, think again. I have been to at least two of these properties and I never wanted to enter the front door despite my real estate agent’s prodding. However, had the price been more reasonable, as a first-time buyer, I might have made the effort.

This leads one to the understanding that no matter how pretty the home is on the outside, the seller doesn’t have a chance of selling the home unless the price is also attractive. After all, a home with an unappealing feature is only going to appeal to specific types of buyers. These buyers usually include: first-time buyers, buyers who have grown up in similar locations, buyers with limited hearing or decreased olfactory senses, or buyers with limited income.

Pricing the home that has a defect with the right price takes a bit more finesse than pricing the home with a fixable defect. A seller can always take off ten thousand dollars from the asking price if he knows that the home needs new flooring or carpeting. However, how much does a seller reduce the price of the home if the problem cannot be repaired?

A point to think about here is the foolhardiness of not correcting any other minor defects that might exist in the home prior to placing it for sale. The seller might have a better chance at a quick sale if such defects were corrected prior to inviting potential buyers into the home. After all, fixing what you can fix adds to the appearance of the home and balances it out. The potential buyer won’t have as many negatives to list about the house, increasing the seller’s chances of selling the property.

In many cases, an experienced real estate agent can come in handy with this particular task. Since they have access to the going prices for similar homes, they have an idea of what the market will bear. The best strategy is to select a real estate agent who is familiar with the local market.

With many buyers becoming price conscious as the economy worsens, pricing your home for sale with a good price is essential to selling it quickly. Once the market becomes slow, prices generally go down and homes tend to sit around idly waiting for a prospective buyer. A good price, one that is reasonably fair to both the buyer and the seller, is the price that is going to attract the attention of more than one potential buyer and increase the odds of selling the home

Tags: home staging, housecleaning services, undesirable features, undesirable location

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