At the beginning of this decade, you could sell your home without even putting it in MLS. My, how things have changed. Now you practically have to beg a buyer to make an offer. If your property isn’t generating interest, what can you do?

There is no doubting the current real estate market is tough to sell in. It may even seem hopeless in your area. It is not hopeless. You can sell. In fact, we just sold our home. The key is to be persisten and take unique approaches.

Location, location, location. It is the first rule of real estate. Many sellers make the mistake of not playing up the positives of their community. Don’t make this mistake. Note the quality schools, low crime rate and so on. Play it up!

When selling your neighborhood, you also have to account for the problem areas. You know, that one neighbor. A simple strategy is to offer to pay for their landscaping and so on. You’ll recover the money on the sale of your home.

Step back from your pricing. Look around the neighborhood. Are there comparable homes listed for less, even a few thousand dollars less? If so, you need to cut your price. You don’t need to beat the fixer upper on the block, just those similar to your home.

Now, you are probably thinking your home is better than those considered comparables. Well, yes and no. It probably is better, but not enough to make a difference to buyers. Remember, homeowners like to change things, so they may not care if you’ve upgraded.

What if you just can’t bear to lower the price? Are you out of luck? Not necessarily. If there is some definite reason you should be priced higher than comparable homes, then it is okay. You absolutely must emphasize this in your marketing material, however.

If your price isn’t low, you can try to make up for it with favorable terms for your buyers. Specifically, offer to help them by carrying a second note on the property or providing some other nugget that will make them bite on the property.

The last step you can take is to make improvements to your home. There can often be a fatal flaw you might not notice since you live at the home. Ask friends to give the home the once over as though they were looking to buy the property. See what they say.

Regardless, there are a couple quick fixes that are cheap and will help. Fix and clean the driveway. Clean up the landscaping. Paint the front, particularly around windows. Get rid of all that clutter in your house. Basically, you need to give your home a buffing.