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Reasons why homes don’t
sell If you have had your
home on the market for several months and haven’t seen much activity or
any offers, chances are that one or more of the reasons below are to
blame.
No doubt about it, the
most common reason for a home not selling is that the asking price has
been set too high. The reasons for setting your
price too high to begin with are many. Ranging
from over enthusiastic listing agents to unrealistic seller
expectations. Regardless of the reason though,
if you’ve priced your home too high, you’ve set yourself up for a
number of obstacles to selling your home. Even if
you do get an offer for the overly high asking price, the deal may fall
apart before closing because the buyer may have problems financing at
too high a price. Look at other homes for sale,
ones as similar and as close to yours as possible. If
they are going for less than you are asking, you may be priced too high. The fact is, your home is competing against those
other homes, and what buyers are willing to pay is what will determine
final sales prices. The condition of your
home There is a lot of competition out there to sell homes. Your home has to compete against other similar homes for sale, as well as competing against shiny brand new homes. The more you can do to make your home look appealing to a buyer, the better your chances for a quick sale. Look at your home with a critical eye – put yourself in the buyers position. A buyer doesn’t want to have to do anything except move in. Your best “bang for the buck” in improving the condition of your home are paint and flooring. Make sure that all of the paint is in great condition, both inside and out. Repainting doesn’t cost too much, and will usually make the biggest impact on buyers. Make sure all of the flooring looks good too. You may want to consider putting in new carpet. Again, it’s not that expensive but it sure does make an impact on buyers coming to look at your home.
Location, location, location It’s the oldest
cliché in the world, but it’s true. When
it comes to real estate, it’s all about location! When
it comes to homes, things like how good the schools are, crime rates,
visual appeal of the neighborhood and noise or the smell of pollution
can all effect how desirable the location is. If
you’re in a bad location, a good real estate agent may help to minimize
some of the impact by suggesting improvements to the house. But the only really reliable way to overcome a
bad location is with a lower price. Simply
put, an identical home in a bad location won’t sell for as much as the
same home in a better location. Your marketing campaign
is out of steam The best listing agents
all use an aggressive marketing plan to market their listings. If your listing agent isn’t making sure your
home can be found easily on the internet, isn’t actively touting his or
her listings to other agents in the area, isn’t running ads in the
local newspapers and real estate publications, then it might be time to
change agents. The best agents might even
run radio or television ads for their listings. If
all your agent has done is put a sign in your front yard and add your
home to the local MLS, then that agent isn’t coming close to doing all
that can be done to effectively market your home.
You’ll hear it
described as a slow market, or a buyers market, or maybe a cold market. But it all means the same thing.
That home sales in the local area, or market, are slow. That there are too many homes for sale and not
enough active buyers. There are several
things you can do to combat a slow market. The
most effective strategy is to sell at a lower price.
Buyers are expecting to find bargains during a slow market. You can also help yourself by offering to pay
some concessions to help a buyer that might not have a lot of cash. The ultimate way to beat a slow market is to
simply wait it out. But that’s not always
an option for many sellers. Your home isn’t easily
accessible To get your home sold
quickly, it’s important that other agents in the area show it to as
many potential buyers as possible. When a
busy agent is compiling a list of homes to show a buyer, the agent will
naturally tend to show those houses that are easiest to gain access to
first. Many homes on the market have “lock
boxes” on them. The lock box is a device
which holds a key to the home, that only qualified local agents can
access. Homes that are listed as being
“lock box, no appointment needed” will get shown more often than homes
listed as “agent has key, call for appointment”. If
at all possible, you should let your agent put a lock box on your home
for easier showing. If not, you should do
anything else you can to make it as convenient as possible for agents
to show your home. You have an agent
nobody likes Sounds almost silly,
but it’s very true. If your listing agent
isn’t liked or respected by other agents in your area, it could slow
down the sale of your home. When an agent
prepares to show properties to prospective buyers, the agent begins by
talking to the buyer to find out what kind of home they are looking for. Then the agent searches the local MLS and
other sources for homes that fit the buyer. If
there are a number of good matches to choose from, and one of them has
been listed by an agent that is hard to get along with, or arrogant, or
has otherwise made himself unpopular, well… It’s
just human nature to tend to skip over someone you don’t like. |
