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Christine Balderas

Given the stagnant housing market, many people are choosing to hold onto their homes and wait for better times. But sometimes things come up that make it tough to wait, such as a move, a job change or a change in life circumstances.

It’s tricky to sell a house in a hurry, but not impossible, according to Devri Doty, principal broker and co-owner of Windermere Pacific Crest Realty in McMinnville. The key, she said, is careful planning and pricing.

“I would say that probably the number one factor that needs to be considered to sell the property quickly is pricing,” Doty said. “And doing the necessary homework to arrive at a price that theoretically should move a property.”

Realtor Deirdre Errand of the Oregon Realty Co. agreed.

“Price it right,” she said. “That’s the most important thing. Price overcomes a lot of obstacles in anything.”

The downside is a reduced profit margin.

“You’re not going to realize what you might have,” Errand acknowledged. But if your Realtor is giving you disappointing news about pricing, it’s for a reason, she said.

“As a Realtor, we try to give the most unbiased opinion as to what your competition is going to do,” she said.

“We list homes based on where they want to be priced. It’s our job, though, to show them what has sold in the last six months and where they should be priced.”

Next on the list is this: Make sure the house and yard are as attractive as possible. That means staging the house, perhaps with professional assistance. After all, your ultimate goal is to get potential buyers to fall in love at first sight.

“A property needs to shine right now, because there’s so much inventory out there and buyers have so many options,” Doty said. “You need to do something unique, or at least better than what the competition is doing.”

Sellers, she said, will need to work closely with their agents before even listing the property.

“Go in with a game plan, in terms of your pricing strategy,” she advised.

Don’t let the house just sit on the market, she said. If a month or two goes by without offers coming in, consider dropping the price.

“Now more than ever, the seller establishes a price, and if in a month, the action is not there, you need to take a look at that,” she said.

Selling, however, isn’t necessarily the only possible scenario.

“If you’re not getting where you need to be with your sale, you need to look at your options, either a lease option or perhaps renting out your property,” Doty said. “I think we’re seeing more opportunities for lease-option homes than we have for the past couple of decades.”

She also offers a side note to brokers: Do your homework so you’ll know what advice to give your clients.

“The current market is unique to a lot of us who have been in the business for a long time,” Doty said. “So daily, we try to explore different ways to attack the market in order to move property.

“I think, as agents, you need to stay on top of statistics. You need to stay on top of reading what’s going on with not only our industry in general, but with the economy. You need to be on the cutting edge.”

She said, “It’s just a frustrating time for all of us right now. I think we all need to stay optimistic. We need to stay passionate about what we do every day.

“We can’t give up. We need to just keep pushing forward."

It’s important, for example, to know that it will be harder now to sell an upper-end house than a more modest property.

“Upper-end homes are stagnant right now,” Doty said. “So far in the month of August, nothing has sold over $375,000.” In both July and August, she said, more than half of all home sales have fallen into the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

Patience on the part of the seller can pay off, though, Errand said.

“We all got spoiled by very short times on the market — five days, 10 days, 20 days.” Now, she said, “It’s come back around to where it was in the mid- to late ’90s,” with houses averaging 90 to 120 days on the market.

Still, she said, “McMinnville is a destination, not just for visiting, but to come to live.”