How do I sell my NC house if it’s in a bad location?

If you’ve read our other blog posts, you know how to prevent your house from going beyond repair and what you need to fix before you sell it. But what if your house isn’t your biggest issue? What if your location is? There are, of course, certain realities you can’t control, such as being in a poor school district or living in an area where the cost of living is increasing exponentially. But there are some things you can do to have an easier time selling your house.

If you paid for the closing costs of a house only to have the location change in undesirable ways, you may be wanting to move. Or maybe you bought a foreclosure in a bad neighborhood, but the area has only gotten worse. Perhaps some renters moved in next door and are very loud. Not exactly great for the housing market in the area. So how do you sell a house in a less-than-ideal neighborhood? 

You can start by making it look snazzy. Sure, it might be in an area that has a noise level resembling New York City, but that’s no reason why it can’t be aesthetically pleasing.

A first impression goes a long way, especially when potential home buyers see pictures of your house on realtor sites like Zillow for the first time. The real estate market loves open houses and having one of these can help boost the price of your house if staged properly.

And staging doesn’t just occur inside. Curb appeal goes a long way when it comes to potential buyers. So, spruce up your lawn and make it look like a new yard. Get rid of those weeds, trim those hedges, and mow that grass!

You’ll also want to consider any feedback you get from your home inspection, as leaving items unfixed could affect the look of your home and reduce the sales price. Home inspectors often give advice on home repairs that you may not have considered.

You may be able to identify benefits of what’s perceived as a bad location. For instance, if you live next to a major retail outlet, you could emphasize the convenience it provides despite the traffic that corresponds with it. 

For some people, the benefit of being able to easily walk to their favorite store outweighs the drawback of traffic.

If you live near a busy highway in the Triangle area of North Carolina, you can espouse the benefits of being able to easily travel between Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Cary. Some new homeowners might be turned off by the noise that corresponds to having a highway nearby, but others will likely not mind the noise as much because of the convenience.

Emphasizing the benefits of your location doesn’t mean you should try to cover up the truth. North Carolina law doesn’t require you to fill out a disclosure form or provide a disclaimer on your house’s drawbacks. But it may be best to answer truthfully if potential buyers ask about items of concern.

So, if you live in downtown Raleigh, and your neighborhood tends to be loud on certain days and times because of the nightlife in the surrounding areas, don’t hide that if the potential buyer asks about noise levels. 

Or perhaps you live in Apex, Clayton, or Morrisville and are surrounded by noisy new construction. Be sure to be honest about that. It’s better to have a potential buyer know what they’re getting into rather than make an offer rather than having a buyer who makes an offer and then retracts it upon learning the truth.

If you want to sell your house fast, you need a buyer who doesn’t give you the run-around when it comes to making an offer. At DKL Housing Solutions, we help people like you sell your old house quickly, with a cash offer, so you can move into your new home. Since we are the buyer, we can work directly with you to find a price that works.

If you want to learn more about how we can help, let us know. Here’s our phone number: (855) 980-6807.