If you’ve found yourself saying, “I can’t sell my house in Charleston SC,” this article is for you. Maybe you’ve been trying to sell your Charleston house for a while now and haven’t received any offers, or at least any good ones, don’t panic! You still have a few tools at your disposal to help you sell your house for a fair price.
You’ve probably already tried the first one at least once: Lowering the asking price.
Everybody wants to sell their house for more than they paid for it but if housing prices in your area are low, the economy’s not doing well, or your home has some sort of structural or locational problem, you may have to reduce your asking price. Charleston’s market is ‘hot’ right now, but not each and every neighborhood is appreciating.
What are my options if I can’t sell my house in Charleston?
Why won’t my house sell?? Here are five other things you can try when you can’t sell your house in Charleston:
1) Take It Off the Market
You may be trying to sell your home at a bad time, such was when there are a lot of other houses just like yours on the market, during the winter months, or during the holidays.
If this is the case, you might be best served by taking your home off the market for a few months – if you can afford to keep paying the mortgage – and wait until market conditions turn in your favor. Watch the neighborhood and see how other on market houses are doing.
2) Take Out a Second Mortgage
If you have built a lot of equity in your home, you may want to take out a home equity loan — if you can afford to pay the higher monthly payment, that is. If not, you may be able to renegotiate a loan modification plan with your lender or convert your adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed-rate mortgage that has a lower interest rate. The loan can be used to fund other things, including real estate investments.
3) Rent Out Your Home
If you can’t sell your house and don’t want to have multiple mortgages (your old home and your new home) one option may be to rent out your home at or above the price of your monthly mortgage payment. That allows you to apply the rent to your mortgage without having to gain any additional expense – other than updates, maintenance and repairs. – Tip: Don’t forget to plan in for vacancy time between tenants. This allows you to ready the house for the next tenant and stay current with updates. People will treat your house better if it’s in nice condition for them.
4) Consider a Short Sale
“I can’t sell my house in Charleston because I owe too much!” This can happen if you purchased your home within the past few years and currently owe more than the home is worth (called being upside down).
In some instances, you can negotiate with your lender to accept less than what you owe on your mortgage. If it looks like the other option is foreclosure, your lender probably will accept a short sale. Judicial foreclosure in Charleston, SC is no fun for the lender or the home owner. It’s a long and tedious process which is why the lender may negotiate with you.
To do this, you’ll need to have a buyer on board who can close quickly. Fortunately, we can! Give us a call today at 843-994-3200 for a no-hassle offer on your house.
Keep in mind, however, that short sales can affect your credit. Redeeming a pre-foreclosure on your credit history might disqualify you from getting another mortgage, at least for a little while.
5) Offer a “Lease to Own” Option
A lease to own option is when you rent your house to somebody with the option to purchase your home at or before the lease expires. This is a good option if you can’t find qualified buyers because you can collect rent plus a lease option fee from a tenant while giving them time to save up for a down payment and establish their credit so they can get a mortgage to buy your home down the line.
You also can add a lease premium to their monthly rent that can either be applied to the down payment later or – if they don’t end up exercising their option to buy your home – you can keep it as income.
I Can’t Sell My House in Charleston SC!
If you are interested in learning more your options for selling your home in Charleston SC, call us at 843-994-3200 or fill out the form on this page to get more information sent to you right away.