How To Aggressively Sell Your Property In Today's Market

Good Evening Friends,

We have been traveling around the country all summer and have run into an astounding number of people in financial trouble - investors and homeowners alike. If you are in trouble and need to sell, here are some great tips that will help...

Whether an investor or a homeowner in distress, selling your property is always going to be your best option. If it sells before the sheriffs sale (the foreclosure sale date) you won’t have a final foreclosure on your credit report. Your credit report will reflect that a foreclosure was filed, but that it was solved before the final sale date. It does help your credit when starting over.

If you are an investor who owns several investment properties, selling them will help a lot. Having ten foreclosures is hard to recuperate from. You might be better filing bankruptcy and wiping the slate clean.

Let’s cover aggressive ways to sell your property. If this does not work, we have many other options for you – a short sale, deed in lieu, renting, and much more – so please keep reading.

Financially Distressed Owners Who Can’t Sell Their Property

You’re in foreclosure or behind in payments and have made the decision to sell. You may still be experiencing a hard time emotionally, but you are one-step closer to getting back on track and getting on with your life.


Before you call a real estate agent and list your house, try a few other options first:
* Place an ad on www.craigslist.com
* Place an ad on www.ebay.com
* Place an ad on www.loopnet.com
* Place other ads on any “For Sale By Owner” site you can find

If you have a $200,000 property, you could save $12,000 in real estate commission, which means you can sell the house for less. We suggest trying to sell your property yourself only for 30 days. If you get no bites, consider listing it.

To determine what your house is worth, look on www.zillow.com for comparable sales. Zillow is a free service that offers comps. Remember, you are facing hardship so sell the house for a low as possible to unload it. Now is not the time to get greedy and look to make a profit. Now is the time to move is as quickly as possible before you lose it.


Here are a few sample ads that have worked great for us:

2/1/cp. Seller desperate. Will pay cc. New w/d, c/h/a. 555-5555 $99K

4/1½/1. c/h/a. New everything. Motivated seller. Will pay cc.
555-5555 259K OBO

3/2/1. seller will pay costs. Newly remodeled. Need to sell. w/d/c/h/a. 349K
555-5555

Bring your toothbrush, 3/2 spotless & ready for your family $99,700 Desperate Seller! 555-5555

Low down, Seller will help" - 3/2 Dollhouse, needs nothing but your furniture. Seller will help. $57,400 555-5555. OBO

Low down, low monthly to qualified buyer. Seller will help. 2/1/1,fcd yd, fm rm. $69,900, 555-5555

You pay for each line when running ads so abbreviate everything. The goal is to put as much information in the ad as possible. Look at ads in your local papers to get a feel for what they abbreviate. The person taking the ad should help with this. Most papers will allow you to place an ad and will bill you in 30 days. This helps cut immediate costs. Here are what some of the abbreviations mean...

3/2/1cg = 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1 car garage
2/1/cp = 2 bed, 1 bath, carport
4/1½/1 = 4 bed, one and a half baths, 1 car garage
fc yd = fenced yard
fm rm – family room
OBO = or best offer
CC = closing costs
w/d= washer/dryer
c/h/a= central, heat, and air


Notice in our ads we state “seller desperate” or “motivated seller” or something along those lines. This will cause your phone to ring. The more calls you get, the better your chances to sell your property quickly.

Don’t be embarrassed to use these words in your ads. You want your phone to ring and other people are always looking for a good deal and it will generate interest.

* Always advertise your property as far below market as you can to sell it before the foreclosure goes any further.

If properties are selling for $150,000, sell yours for $129,900. Again, the goal is to sell your house as quickly as possible. The lower the price; the more buyer’s who will show interest. Even if you have 20 houses in your neighborhood that are for sale, do not let this intimidate you. Yours could be the perfect house for someone else and might sell the first day.


If, after 30 days of trying to sell it yourself, no one has shown any interest, consider listing it with a real estate agent. Real estate agents will also run comps and give you their opinion of value, have you sign a listing agreement, and put it on the market. Since many people looking to buy a house use an agent, it might prove worthwhile.

The downside to listing your house is that most people who use agents look for new listings. Once another 30 days had passed, your listing will be old and will get very little attention. Also, many agents take as many listings as possible just hoping that one will close and don’t put much effort into the actual selling process. They rely on agents who show houses to sell their listings. You have listing agents and selling agents. Look for a selling agent.

Take time to interview an agent. Ask how many listings they took in the last six months and how many of their own listings they sold. If they took 25 listings and didn’t sell any, your house won’t sell either.


There are many reasons your house might not sell in time to beat the foreclosure sale:
* You owe more than your house is currently worth.
* It needs too much work to sell it retail.
* You are in one of the many areas that is very depressed.
* Industry is moving out of your area and there are no jobs.

If any of these situations apply to you, we have a possible solution – a short sale. We will talk about short sales a little later, but the jest of it is this:

* A short sale is where you negotiate with the bank to accept less than what you owe against your property as full payment. For example, you have a house worth $100,000, you owe $100,000 and are facing foreclosure. You call the bank, ask them to do a short sale, they agree and they accept $60,000 as a full payoff. Now you can sell your house below market and get out of foreclosure. Banks will short sale investment properties, too.

Many times a real estate agent can list your house and in the “special clauses” section of the listing agreement put the words - “Bank will accept a short sale. Bring all offers.” The agent then takes any offer given and presents it to the bank. The bank will then decide to either accept or pass. Because of the millions of foreclosure that are predicted, banks are doing more and more short sales everyday.

I hope this helps...

Have a Blessed Day,

Dwan