In my recent trials from trying to sell my house and purchase another, I have learned a lot about selling and buying big ticket items.  I’ll use my house as an example, but this really applies to anything.  It used to be my naive opinion that selling something simply meant that, compared to everything else available on the market, you had the best to offer in your price point.  If you had the best at the right price, it would sell.  This is true, but a slight change in this methodology will lead to quicker, more frequent sales.

The truth is, you don’t need to have the best product on the market.  You simply need to have the best that a potential buyer HAS SEEN.  The key to this difference is that people are lazy, and they don’t always spend the time necessary to look at every available option.  So, if you are pro-active in finding buyers, then whatever you are selling will probably be one of the first items the buyer sees.  If they like it and it meets their price point, then you have a good chance of selling it.

For example, I had a potential buyer I was talking to on Twitter about my house.  He had found another house and was in process of purchasing, but the deal had stalled when the house didn’t appraise for asking value.  Well, I hit him up, talked him into coming to see my house.  He was thinking it over, but had already fallen in love with the house he was trying to purchase.  Even though, in my opinion, my house is better (bigger, recently remodelled, better lot, etc) and at the same price point, he had seen that house first, liked it, had spent the last few weeks dreaming about how he would fix it up, decorate it, paint it, etc and so he decided to not even come by to look at my house after the seller met the appraised price.  In this case, it did not matter that my house was better.  What mattered was what he saw and liked first.

When selling houses, the mistake is using a realtor right away.   I would always recommend you at least try to sell it yourself first, then if you are not able to sell it, find a realtor.  A lot of people look online for houses.  Put it on craigslist, in the local online classifieds for your paper and see if you can proactively go after a buyer.  Talk to everyone you know and push your house.  In this situation, they are pretty much comparing my house to the others on craigslist or in some cases only currently considering my house.  In this situation, if they like my house (not like it better than another, but if they like it at all), it is sold.  If I go with a realtor, my house is being compared with everything in the local MLS system.  The odds of my house being the best a buyer has seen is greatly reduced with a realtor.  The flip side is that realtors have a larger buying pool, but give it a go yourself before you give in and see if you can get it sold.