Selling your house can be like trading in your car

From Garage Sales to Trading in your Car –

sometimes it makes sense to realize how selling your house could be similar to trading in your car.

Have you ever had a bunch of stuff that was just in the way?  I have too much stuff and periodically try to sell it at a garage sale so I can get my garage back.  Garage sales can be fun.  You meet all kinds of people and you have a chance to make some quick cash.  Most of all, you get to clean out stuff that’s in the way.

I’ve also made the mistake of pricing items too high.  I either put an emotional value on them that others didn’t have or I just could not stop thinking about how much that item costs new.  The problem is, at the end of the day, I still owned those items – they hadn’t sold.  Now I had a choice. I could give the items to charity or I could put it back in my garage.  I’ll probably have to pack it all up at the end of the day, and take it and drop it off at my local charity sponsored thrift store.

I recognized if I really wanted to be free of the stuff, I needed to just price it better.  If I tried to get $50 for that old exercise bike all that was going to happen would be me putting it back in my garage at the end of the day.  I didn’t complain too much about the price, because I was going to be able to get my garage back.

Would you trade in your old car like I did?

Several years ago I had a car that needed significant repairs and I was tired of fixing it.  I wanted a newer car to go in that garage I had just cleaned out, but I needed the money from the sale of my old car, before I could buy a different car.  If you’ve ever sold your old car to buy a different car you know the problem.  What do you do for transportation after you sold your old car and before you buy your next car?  I  thought about putting an ad in Craigslist and having strangers coming by my house, but I wasn’t really comfortable with strangers coming by.  Garage sales are one thing, there’s typically several people around and I’m not alone with someone I don’t know.

My solution, I traded in my old car at a car dealership, and got cash for my next car.  The dealership looked over my car and looked up the value of the car if they were to sell it.  Then they offered me the price they were willing to pay me for my car that would allow them to make a small profit.  I know I didn’t get the same price as if I sold it privately, but I did receive several benefits.  First, I didn’t have to worry about dealing with strangers.  Secondly, it was a quick and easy sale.  Finally, I didn’t have to do any repairs to the car and I was able to buy the car I really wanted.   For these benefits, I was willing to give up some of the money I might have received if I had sold it myself.

You can trade in your house like your car?

Selling an unwanted house can be a lot like selling my old car.  Sometimes we need to sell a house, because like the stuff in our garage or our old car, it’s keeping us from moving on to other things.  We know we can sell it as a “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO) or through a Realtor and probably get the highest price for it. But that comes at a cost.  I’ll probably have pay for repairs.  There will be strangers coming to my house. Then there’s the time it takes to list, find a buyer and close escrow.  For most situations, these trade-offs are worth it.

Sometimes though, it just makes more sense to be done with the process and and sell our house quickly; just like when we have sold items at a garage sale or trading our car in.  We make decisions like this every day, because if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s not always about the price, is it?

Investors offer home owners a way to sell your unwanted house with many of the same benefits as trading in your car.  First, you avoid the costs of repairs.  Second, you are able to avoid having strangers walking through your home -especially if it’s vacant.  Most important,it allows you to find a quick and easy solution.  The end result, you get to move on with your life.