HomeReport
Real Estate & Finance News That Affects Your Home                                                     October 2008 - Page 4

SMART IDEAS

Selling Incentives That Won’t Cost You A Dime

Many home sellers around the nation have been offering extra incentives to attract buyers to a contract--a free plasma TV, car, lawn service for a year, home warranty, etc. In some cases, these types of incentives do attract buyer interest. In other cases, the buyer would just as soon pay a lower price for the home. Either way, the seller’s net is reduced by the amount of the incentive or price reduction.

If you’re interested in adding an incentive to your home sale, think about what you could offer that won’t cost you anything, but that many buyers would value. For example, do you own a vacation home or time share? If so, you could offer buyers a free week-long "Relocation and Recovery" (R&R) vacation as incentive to purchase your home.

Perhaps you or someone in your family has a skill that could be turned into an incentive. A Masters swimmer might offer a series of free swim lessons for the buyers or their children. If you are an artist or photographer, you could offer a portrait of the buyer or the home itself. A financial planner might offer free consulting for a project. An architect could offer to design a room addition of choice. What’s in your imagination?

Other incentives might include conveying items that don’t normally transfer with a home (but ones you don’t really want to take to your new home), e.g., a room-sized oriental carpet or a stone garden bench or custom window treatments.

Start thinking creatively and you’re likely to find something of value you can offer to spark interest in your home. Ask us for more ideas

TIME TO INVEST?

Study Shows Price Pressure On Low-Cost Rental Housing

Research by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies shows the nationwide average for monthly rents in 2007 reached a record $775 and the number of renter households increased by 1 million.

According to the report, "America’s Rental Housing: The Key to a Balanced National Policy," more households are competing for lower-cost rental units due to home-owners losing their homes to foreclosure and renters being evicted from homes their landlords lost to foreclosure. In addition, 169,000 fewer multi-family units were built last year than in 2006.

If you are looking for an investment opportunity, now may be a great time to consider buying a single- or multi-family unit to round out your portfolio. Give us a call to see how we could help you find a good rental-unit investment.