Eric 0:00
Hey friends, Eric with CamShell, and today, I’ve got a need for speed. We’re going to be doing a video on tips for selling a house fast in Cleveland. Now, I live in Cleveland Ohio, so this may be different where you’re from. Different climates and everything, they’re going to go through different market cycles, but if we are looking to sell a house quickly in the North of the United States, then here’s five tips that I would definitely like to have known before I got into it.
1)So, the first tip is to know your comps. I’m sure you guys have heard comps, they use it all the time on all the flip shows. “Comp” stands for comparables, which are similar houses that have sold in a close proximity to the one that you’re selling. So, if I have a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo with one garage space on it, and I have a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo with one garage space a quarter mile away that just sold a month ago, I have a pretty good idea of what the market’s willing to pay for my asset.
Comps are pretty easy to look up. Give me a call, I’ll be happy to do it for you if you don’t know how, but Zillow has them. Investors have certain softwares that will basically let us pull from public records and the MLS records of recently sold houses. So, quick rules on comps; you want to be within a quarter mile if possible, if not, you just extend this search out. And you want to be within plus or minus a couple of hundred square feet of your property. A 2000 square foot home costs more than a 1000 square foot home, even if they’re two-bedrooms, two-bathrooms, so square footage needs to be about the same as well.
2) The second tip that I would have liked to have when I got started is not all offers are the same. If we’re looking to sell it quickly, I don’t think that a realtor is going to be able to do it in 2, 3, 4 weeks. Maybe some are, but the grand majority of houses sold on the MLS are going to take three to four months. You have to find a buyer, you have to do all the walkthroughs, that buyer has to be approved for funding. And then, the closing through title all has to happen.
So, that timeframeof three to four months is not going to work if you need the money soon. What you want to be looking at is a cash offer. The benefit of using a cash offer is it’s fast. The downside is it’s going to be the lowest offer. It’s like if you were to run a car dealership, and you didn’t offer people financing, they’re only going to be able to offer you what they have; a cash offer. So, that $60,000 pickup truck, they have 20 grand in the bank, that’s what they can pay. However, if you let them make a down payment, make some payments to you with an interest rate, not only are you able to sell that $60,000 pickup for what you’re asking, but the consumer is able to afford it. Same idea, you’ve created a promissory note with seller financing, you’re basically the bank and the investor or the buyer, which is me in this situation, they’re going to be making payments to you which allows them to pay a lot more overall. Now, it does take longer, you can negotiate a down payment in there, but you’re going to be getting mailbox money from these terms, which most seller finances are going to balloon in five to 10 years, meaning you’ll get paid off once that investor refinances it.
So, you can do the cash offers, or you can do a seller finance, whatever your situation calls for, and whatever the investor’s okay with doing.
3)Time of the year is big in Cleveland. If you’re living in other places, I’m not sure if it’s such a big factor. But, in Cleveland, it snows and it snows a lot, and it snows for a long time. So, if you have a house that needs a roof, it’s probably not a good time to sell. If you have a house that needs painting outside, it’s probably not going to be a good time to sell it in the winter. The time of the year dictates what the market is willing to pay for that asset. And if it’s harder on the buyer, if I can’t replace the roof in the winter, I can’t pay that much for it because my money is sitting there until springtime when I can replace the roof. So, if you do have any exterior maintenance or exterior repairs that need done, I’d try to get those done as soon as possible, it’s going to help you sell the thing a lot quicker.
4)The fourth tip that I would give you is prep for showings. If you’re not using a realtor, showings are basically going to be on you. You’re going to have to schedule them, get me in there so I can see the house and give you the offer, and you want it to look good. Doesn’t need to be immaculate, most investors buy as is, but you also don’t want animal waste. I’ve walked through houses with dead raccoons, and I’ve walked through houses where the basement was a pool. Not designed to be a pool, the waterline broke and it became a pool overnight. So, you want to make sure that the property is ready for showing because it’s not going to sell very quickly if there’s a pool in the basement, unless it’s an inground pool that is a selling point for you, but your not going to find those in Cleveland.
5) And then, the fifth tip that I would give you that I wish I would have known when I started is, interest rates matter a lot to buyers. You guys are selling a house, doesn’t really matter what the interest rate is to you, you’re looking for a chunk of money. To the buyer in the situation, the interest rate definitely does matter. If the interest rates are 7, 8, 9 percent, like they are now, it’s just not a great time because there’s not a lot of banks lending money to people at those interest rates because it’s not affordable. When the interest rates were lower, houses were flying off the market. There’s a big pool of buyers, anyone can get money, it was 3% to borrow it a couple of years ago. So, if you do have a 3% interest rate that you obtained a few years ago, that’s another tip there is; look for that seller finance. The buyers in that situation would love to take over… I’d pay you a lot more if I can take over your 3% loan as opposed to going to a bank and having to pay seven or 8% to obtain that asset.
So, those would be my five tips. I’m more than happy if anyone has questions. Please give me a call or you can email me. It’s Eric@CamShellCLE.com — as in Cleveland — dot com. I’m happy to run comps with you. I can figure out what the house is worth. I can give you a cash offer, seller finance offer. Whatever fits your situation, I’d be happy to talk you through it. So, until next time, I’m going to sign off here. I hope you enjoyed the video. Definitely check back for the weekly videos that we’re going to be doing, and I will talk with you guys in the next one.