How Do I Sell An Expensive House?
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

You've lived in your house for years and taken pride in withnumerous improvements. Now it is overvalued and you'rewondering, "How do I sell an expensive house?"

How Do I Sell An Expensive House?

When discussing how to sell an expensive house, there are twoscenarios in which the issue comes up. The first is you have ahome in an expensive neighborhood, but one which you're askingfor a price comparable to similar homes around you. In such asituation, you should be able to sell your expensive housethrough traditional means, either as a FSBO listing or through arealtor. The



home should be cleaned up and listed with amultiple listing service. Open houses should be undertaken aswell as online advertising with photographs. In this currentmarket, you should be able to move the home fairly quickly.

The second expensive house scenario is a bit more complicated.In this scenario, you have improved your home beyond a valuesupported by surrounding structures. This can often occur if youlive in a home for a substantial period of time and makeadditions to the home such as new rooms, floors, renovatedkitchens and so on. The homes in your neighborhood all appraisefor roughly $300,000, but your additions should make the houseworth upwards of $450,000. You have a problem because nobody isgoing to buy the most expensive home on the block.

What To Do?

You're first choice is to hold onto the home and hope theneighbors get around to improving their homes. This strategy isrife with problems and should probably be avoided.

A better choice is to target market your home to a specificdemographic. If you've added rooms to your home, you shouldcreate advertisements directed at families with multiplechildren matching the number of bedrooms you have. If you'vegone nuts with improvements in the kitchens and fixtures, youshould market the home as "luxury without the price." The pointis to turn your problem into a unique selling position for thehouse. Trust me, there is a buyer out there looking for asolution to their problem.

Appraisal Problems

If you house is over-improved, every potential sale will fallthrough because the appraised price will make it difficult forthe buyer to get a loan. The best way for dealing with this isto "carry a second" mortgage on the home. In essence, you agreeto take a certain percentage of the price in payments over acertain time period. This allows the buyer to get into the houseand you to get out. If you go this direction, make absolutelysure you use a lawyer to make sure everything is legal.

Trying to sell an expensive house can be a challenge. Thatdoesn't mean it can't be done.

About the author:Raynor James is with the FSBO site - http://www.fsboamerica.org- FSBO homes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page -http://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm - to sell your houseyourself with a free 1 month listing.

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