5 tips: Selling a house in a buyer's market
By Holden Lewis • Bankrate.com

House prices are falling in much of the country, and a report by Merrill Lynch says a record 2.2 million single-family homes and condos are on the market -- almost 1 million above normal levels.

It's a buyer's market, but don't despair.

Selling in a buyer's market: You can increase your chance of selling your house in a reasonable time by following a few good guidelines.

5 tips for sellers 1. Play the cards you're dealt. 2. Scope out other houses for sale. 3. Make it a turnkey, not a turkey. 4. Offer incentives. 5. Be realistic.

1. Play the cards you're dealt.
A successful poker night begins before you reach the table, when you resolve not to chase after hands that you have no realistic chance of getting. Similarly, a successful home sale begins before the house is listed, when you decide not to expect to make a killing.

"All you can do in a falling market, if you have to sell, is have the best possible product out there at the price it should be," says Diane Saatchi, an agent with Corcoran Group in East Hampton, N.Y. "Not what you wish you could get, not what the neighbor got two years ago, but at the price you should get now. That's the reality."

It takes discipline to face that reality. Humility, too. For many sellers, "the only disappointment is that their friend, six months or a year ago, got more than they're getting," says Bill Christiano, a loan officer with MortgageIT in White Plains, N.Y. "Ego gets in the way when they're trying to sell. Or stubbornness, I should say."

2. Scope out other houses for sale.
Break through your ego and stubbornness by looking at the good deals that your neighbors are offering. "The most important thing is to really shop the competition on the market right now," says Elizabeth Razzi, author of "The Fearless Home Buyer," published in 2006, and of "The Fearless Home Seller."

Put on your shopping shoes and look at everything from a buyer's viewpoint. "Get out in the car and spend a weekend looking at everything you can," Razzi says. "Visit some weekend open houses. Just get a feel for what your buyers are looking at."

Visit newly built houses and find out which amenities and incentives builders are offering. Eavesdrop on other visitors to open houses to find out if there's something in particular they're looking for -- something you should do to make your house more presentable.

3. Make it a turnkey, not a turkey.
The word "turnkey" is used in commercial real estate. It means a property is ready for immediate use. Your house has to be that way when buyers have a cornucopia of houses to choose from. "You have to make it a 100 percent turnkey situation," Razzi says. "Everything has to be ready to roll, because buyers never want to buy a house that needs a lot of work unless it's an absolute bargain. You have to take away all their opportunities to say no."

Saatchi says that when buyers outnumber sellers, you can get away with selling a house with ratty carpet, smelly furniture and walls that need painting. The market was like that two years ago, but not now. Saatchi suggests hiring a house inspector before putting the house on the market. "Know now, and fix it," she says.

Bursting of a bubble

The number of unsold dwellings on the market has grown 38 percent in a year, from 2.94 million in August 2005 to 4.07 million in August 2006. If you think of the national housing market as a car sales lot, it would have had 97 used vehicles and 3 new cars in August 2005, and 133 used vehicles and 5 new cars in August 2006. Prices have gone down. The median resale price of a used home fell 1.7 percent, to $225,000 in August 2006 from $229,000 in August 2005.

Sources: National Association of Realtors, U.S. Census Bureau.