The most important step in a falling homemarket is making the decision hether to sell or not to sell. In the bad old seller’s market days, people put their houses up for sale even if they really didn’t care to move, just to realize the profits their home has accrued over time. Now, however, you have to have a very good reason to sell your home since home prices are no longer growing but actually slipping.

When you don’t have any choice, for example, if you are being relocated, be ready to fight hard to get a good price for your house. Unless forced to sell, the greatest advice is to wait. Home prices have gone up and down throughout the years, and they will increase again.

Once you have decided you have to sell, you need to decide if you want to market it yourself or engage the services of a real estate broker. FSBO, for sale by owner, houses are becoming more and more common as today’s high home prices make real estate commissions of 5 or 6% seem exorbitant. The reason real estate agents have been able to command such high commissions is because there is a great deal of work to selling a house. Unless you are able to put the same effort into the sale, you may wind up waiting a long time for the sale. In addition, in today’s competitive real estate market, many real estate agents are open to negotiating their commissions.

Choose your real estate agent carefully. Research the recent sales in your neighborhood to see which agent’s names you find most often as listing agent. Then see which ones have the shortest time between listing and closing.

Now that you have an agent, be a partner with him. Call often to see what is happening with your listing. Make sure yours is the property that is always uppermost in her mind. Make your house always available for viewing, or allow the agent to have a lock box. There are so many houses for sale, there is a real danger that a buyer will just skip yours if it is too much trouble to view it.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. Make your house the best it can be. Hire a handyman or home inspector to find any potential issues and address them before they can be a deal killer at the end. Keep the house clean, neat, uncluttered and don’t forger the very important curb appeal. A mowed and trimmed lawn, and a home with no visible signs of neglect will assure a walk through. Many buyers just go right past a home that doesn’t appeal from the outside.

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