Homes that have a tough time selling really do so for three main reasons.  Price, Condition, and Marketing.  A great real estate professional will make sure that your marketing is top-notch making sure that your home has maximum exposure.  That’s pretty easy to spot for a seller, just look at how the majority of homes are being marketed and see if your home stands out or not.  From there, have conversations around either bringing down the asking price or raising the condition of the home.  

• Staging is another crucial element in selling. Staged homes sell better than vacant homes. 
• Many buyers are driven by emotion more than anything and most buyers can’t see what could be, but only see what currently is.
• There are three D’s to consider if you are staging the home on your own.  Declutter, Depersonalize, and Decorate.
• Living in a home is very different than staging a home!  If improvements need to be made, think about what would appeal to the largest group of buyers.  For example, check out the deck on the home above (as if you haven’t already!), it’s cool… to a very few people. 

There are several things that get considered by a lender when deciding how much of a loan they will give you. We talked yesterday about your credit scores being one factor. Another consideration is your LTV (Loan to Value). This is the calculation of how much you are putting down. If you put 20% down, you will have an 80% LTV, get a better interest rate and won’t have to pay mortgage insurance. The third factor is your DTI (Debt to Income Ratio). Lenders would rather you are only borrowing around 43% or so of your available income. They take your current debts payments (car, student loans, credit card payments, etc) away from your monthly income and then will lend you up to 43-50% of the remainder.