Where to price your rehab?

Question

I am very new to flipping houses, however I have been in construction and remolding most my adult life.

Currently I have three houses on the market, from my calculation and with my real estate agents help I priced them at what i think is just below market value.  They have been on the market for 30 days no offers!  Should I be doing something to help move them?

I wonder about offering cash back to buyer as an incentive

Or should I just lower the price?

Should I stage the houses and if I do will I get better offers?

Can or should i offer additional cash to agent that brings buyers?

Thank You for and ideas you can give me

J Scott · Answer

We are licensed agents in two of the states where we invest -- in those states, we market/sell our houses ourselves, as we know the market better than most of the agents in the area.

In the other areas, we use agents who are intimately familiar with the area and who have lots of connections and relationships with the big buyer agents in the area.

Ken Fricke · Answer

Thank you all for your comments and help I will talk to my agent to see what the feedback is. then I will  go from there. Do you guys market your houses by yourself s or just use your agent?

Chris Music · Answer

Ken, I agree with the advice above, discuss with your agent and see what the response is, once you know what people are saying you can determine the best way to proceed. From my experience staging is helpful, makes it easier for buyers to visualize themselves living in the home.

Mike Simmons · Answer

In my experience, if you are priced under market value, you will get offers (assuming the rehab was done well). I would ask your realtor what, if any feedback they have gotten from the buyer's realtor.  If they didn't give any, I would ask your realtor to contact the buyer's agent and ask for feedback.  It is the best way to get an idea of what might be going on.

Edward also has a point about the time of the year.  I have sold houses in this time of the year, so it is not unheard of, but sometimes takes a little longer.

J Scott · Answer

As Edward asked above, what has the feedback been?  Have you gotten lots of traffic and no offers?  Or no traffic at all?  What did the buyers say they liked and disliked about the property?  What did they say about the price?

If you don't have this info, then your agent isn't doing his/her job and should be replaced...

Also, consider that this is the slowest time of the year in many areas, so that's a contributing factor...

Edward Burns · Answer

Have you gotten feedback on the houses from viewers?  If so what do they say?

In addition, while it does not make a difference in some locales, you are essentially in the holiday season.  Anyone making an offer today, I would expect closing in 30-45 days, right between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I do not know about anyone else, but I would like to move at that time with everything going on.

Lowering the price might help but I might be more inclined to pull 1 or 2 from the market until after the holidays and then relist so that it appears as a new listing and maybe generate interest that way.