Don't make the mistake of discounting your asking price just to get a sale. If your property is properly valued, in a good location, with a solid return, it's worth the asking price – you just have to convince the buyer!



Having said that though, your property must be priced in the same bracket as your competitors or no one will even be interested in looking at it.

One of the best techniques is to offer material incentives. You want your offer to stand out from the crowd, so think big! If it's a new property, offer upgraded appliances, free security systems, in-ground pool, granite counter tops, or even vacations.

For an existing building, you may want to offer something like a refund on the first 2 month's interest, hard-to-get tickets to the baseball game, or a night out at a swank restaurant for 2.

If you want to get really serious, you can even provide a financing package for the buyer.

This option has several benefits for both parties – a bigger group of potential buyers, no loan points, fast closing, lower selling costs, long-term fixed interest rate with no balloon payment and no early payment penalty for the buyer – they can refinance with someone else at any time.

As the seller, you can convert the loan note into cash fairly quickly. Often, it can be done at the time of closing the sale. Of course, you will take a discount when you exchange paper for cash, but this will be minimal if the deal is an attractive one.

Another great incentive you can offer is a lower "introductory" interest rate, whereby the buyer's monthly repayments are lower for the first year or two while they get over the costs of settling into their new home.

Under this arrangement, you can work out with the buyer an interest rate based on how much they can afford to repay each month. After two years or so, the interest rate will increase and by that time the buyer should be in a better financial position to meet the higher repayments.

As the seller, you don't want to have your money tied up for 30 years, or whatever the term of the loan is, so you can sell the loan at a discount, but given you have already collected the down payment and interest and converted property into cash, it's a win-win situation all round.

Now that the market has turned and it is becoming harder to sell property, this type of financing is being used for all types of real estate, including commercial property of every kind, from industrial to special purpose properties such as theaters and hospitals.

As an investor who will be buying and selling over a long period of time, it's important you not only understand the whole process, but are comfortable and have strategies in place to use this system.

In a falling market, the last thing you want, whether you are buying or selling, is to be locked into a large financial institution that doesn't give you the flexibility you need to protect your investments and generate cash flow.

Of course, part of your investment strategy should be to squeeze the maximum tax advantage you legally can. Get help from your tax advisor before doing anything, but if you're smart, you can use the self-financing option in conjunction with the tax rules to maximize your profits.

The importance of these strategies is that you remain in control of your investment while generating a secure, high yielding near cash asset that provides flexibility in building your portfolio.

It also means you will sleep easier at night knowing you have been able to convert potentially idle property into a paper that can quickly be swapped for cash – and that's a position any investor needs to be in, especially during a market downturn.

With the market falling, many investors are now reviewing their portfolios to create more diversity, the areas many experts will weather the lean times the best are apartments and mobile home parks.

Demand is high for these types of rental, which means rental prices are rising, thus making an apartment or mobile home park an attractive investment. If you're a seller in this market, you may not quite be able to name your price, but it won't be hard to attract buyers, particularly if you offer some good incentives.

If you plan to invest in a mobile home park, you will need to keep a close eye on what is happening locally as renters tend to be fairly mobile – if they lose their job or have to move to find work, it is fairly easy to pack up and go!

Investors are unlikely to buy in a location where the population is declining, there is little stable employment, or the town relies on a single large company that could lay off its workforce overnight for any reason.

On the flip side, you can think outside the square and look for an investment in an area where a large corporation, such as the defense force, or mining company, has a large base or training facilities and would be prepared to sign a long term lease. In this case, you can either agree to a standard lease, which provides a regular cash flow, or offer seller finance, in which case you can sell the paper for a good price as you have a solid gold tenant.