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Home-Selling Tips For Your Property

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Aug 8, 2008 2:22 pm US/Eastern

Home-Selling Tips For Your Property

Visit CBS4.Com/Homes To Learn More About Real Estate In Your Area

Reporting
Al Sunshine
E-mail

Houses in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties take 156 days to sell on average, longer than anywhere else in the country.

"Real estate is cyclical, we are in part of that cycle," said Keller Williams Elite Properties broker and owner Manny Deren.

Deren knows all about that cycle. He's been in South Florida real estate for more than 15 years; he's hoping the cycle will soon start moving up. 

"We're seeing a number of foreclosures and were also seeing a lot of activity in the last few months due to a leveling of prices that have come down from the high," added Deren.

But what happens if you can't wait for the turn around.  It turns out, there are some secrets that can help you sell, but you have to be realistic.

"Buyers expect to get rock bottom prices, it's not always possible and sellers expect to get prices of three years ago and that's not possible," explained Deren. 

The first secret is to understand your real estate market. Don't plan on waiting for a great offer. When you know you need to sell, make your home stand out. Clean up the clutter, make the yard look great, and fix those nagging little problems that buyers don't want to deal with.

And if you want to sell quickly, don't try to do it yourself. Hire a good real estate agent with experience in your neighborhood. When you set your price, make it real. Your agent knows what comparable homes have sold for, and which ones don't sell because they're overpriced. 

Consider additional promotion beyond the multiple listings. Consider advertising online or in the papers. And when a potential buyer comes calling with a reasonable offer, take it. Chances are that first offer will be the best one you get. 

But if staying in your home is an option, experts say this could be the darkness before the dawn in South Florida real estate. 

"We may see a lower reduction of prices with both home sales and single-family home sales beginning to pick up in 2009, maybe even the last quarter of this year," said Antonio Villamil, CEO Washington Economics Group. 

Having the right perspective can make all the difference in getting a house sold. It's not about what you want your home to be worth, it's about dollars and cents that are real for a deal to happen.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)