Selling Your Home on a Busy Street

Selling a Home on a Busy Street
by James Boyer

Selling a house on a busy street requires a determined effort from the home seller and the Realtor to emphasize the many positive aspects of the home. Well-maintained handsom yard with loads of curb appeal to draw in the buyers? Check. Large over-sized lot with possible zoning options for a professional home office? Double Check. According to many professional Realtors with successful experience marketing and selling homes on high traffic streets, these are just a few ways to attract interested home buyers to those busy streets with the double yellow lines down the middle, and reach your goal of a successful home sale.

There are many advantages to owning a home on a busy street. There are more people consistantly coming by and more potential buyers are seeing your home daily, so it is very important that your Realtor understands the challanges that come with the busy street. It is important that your Realtor use a clean and new sign if possible, one that is larger and more prominent would be best. On these busy streets it is important to give the people who might be interested something they can easily remember to get more information. Usually a web address which is easily remembered where they can go to get more information about the home works well.

Pricing (though important with all homes) is extremely important with homes that are on busy streets. The home has to present a great value to the buyer who most times would rather be buying a home that is on a less busy street. Usually the difference in pricing is someplace between 6% and 16% depending on what type of traffic is traveling on your busy street and at what times.

Home buyers have gotten very savvy, so they'll shop on-line for six months or more before contacting a Realtor. They will see many of different homes in lots of different towns and can take virtual tours, see all kinds of other information, but many times they have no idea which homes are on busy streets and which homes are not until they actually get out there and start looking in person. At this point it is the Realtor's job to emphasize the positives and the value the home presents. The look and value the home presents have to give the home buyers every reason to want to go inside and take a look around.

In today's market conditions, home sellers on busy street or non-busy streets need to make sure their home is value-priced. If you own a home on a highly-traveled street, value pricing your home is even more important. Remember when you were looking at homes, making the decision about which home to make a offer on? You probably found that the home you purchased, your house on a busy street, was larger or nicer than other homes you could purchase at the same price. You got a discount over homes on non-busy streets then, and now you must give a discount as well. Actually you are not giving up any real home value by doing this, since you never had the home value to begin with. Ask your Realtor to make some comparisons of similar sold homes, some on busy streets some not if you do not believe this. If a home is well-maintained and priced properly, it likely will sell in a reasonable amount of time for very close to asking price.

Trying to save money in this process is admirable but ofter fool hardy. Many times home owners will wish to hold off on freshening up their home (new paint, cleaned up land scaping with fresh flowers and mulch) claiming that they buyers may not like their choices. If you don't do these things you can be assured the buyers will not like your choice and likely will like your home less than they should. Many times home owners will hire a discount real estate agent or try to sell their home For Sale By Owner. Without going on a tangent, be advised that you get what you pay for. Often times the services of a good professional Realtor will more than pay for any additional commission you pay him or her. You're better off saving yourself the headaches later on by interviewing 2 or 3 good Realtors with strong internet presences before you hire one.

James Boyer, Realtor Specializing in Morristown NJ Real Estate, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ Real Estate and Real Estate in all the Surrounding Communities.