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.
Your price is too high
The most common reason for a home not selling is that the asking price is too high. The reasons for setting the price too high can be caused by an inaccurate assessment by the listing agent to unrealistic seller expectations. Regardless of the reason, if your home is priced too high, you’ve set yourself up for a number of obstacles to selling your home and a lot of disappointment. 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 since they will be limited to the fair market value determined by the appraisal. Look at homes that are for sale that are similar to yours and if they are going for less than you are asking, you may be priced too high. The fact is that your home is competing against those other homes, and what buyers are willing to pay is what will determine final sales price as well as the appraised fair market value.
Your home needs some TLC
Since your home has to compete against other similar homes that are for sale, including the brand new ones, the more you can do to make your home appealing to a buyer, the better your chances for a quick sale. Take a good look at your home with a critical eye – put yourself in the buyer’s position. A buyer doesn’t want to have to do anything except move in. Paint and flooring can give you the best “bang for the buck” in improving the condition of your home. Make sure that all of the paint is in great condition, both inside and out. Repainting doesn’t cost much and will 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
When it comes to real estate, it’s all about location! Buyers always have something they are looking for in a location whether it’s how good the schools are, low crime rates, visual appeal of the neighborhood or low noise. Additionally things like the smell of pollution or excessive noise can have a negative affect on how desirable buyers find the location. If you’re in a less desirable location, a good real estate agent may help to minimize some of the impact by suggesting improvements to the house. But the only reliable way to overcome a bad location is with a lower price. Unfortunately, an identical home in a bad location won’t sell for as much as the same home in a more desirable location.
Your marketing campaign is either out of steam or never got going
All of the best listing agents use an aggressive marketing plan to market their listings. An aggressive campaign should include making sure your home can be found easily on the Internet, making sure other agents know about their listings in the area, running ads in the local newspapers and real estate publications and possibly using radio or television ads. These days’ agents have to do far more than putting a sign in your front yard and adding your home to the local MLS! If that’s all your current agent ids doing, then that agent isn’t coming close to doing all that can be done to effectively market your home.
The market is in a slow period
You will know it’s a slow market when home sales in your local area are slow and there are more homes for sale than there are active buyers. There are several things you can do to combat a slow market that include lowering your price, pay the maximum for closing costs or other concessions that are attractive to buyers in your area. You might throw in a trip or something fun. Discuss these options with you real estate agent. Of course, the best way to beat a slow market is to simply wait it out if you can and the market improves.
Your home isn’t easily accessible
Making your home as accessible as possible can be the difference in getting your house sold quickly or never looked at! It is important that other agents in the area must be able to show your home to as many potential buyers as possible. As agents compile a list of homes to show a buyer, they naturally tend to first show houses that are easy to get to and get in to. Many homes on the market have “lock boxes” on them and only qualified local agents can access this device that holds a key to your home. 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 so it will be easier to show.
Nobody likes your agent
The first time I ever heard about this I thought it sounded so silly, but it’s very true. If your listing agent isn’t liked or respected by other agents in your area, there is a good chance it will 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, arrogant, or has otherwise made himself or herself unpopular, well…. It’s just human nature to tend to skip over someone you don’t like.
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If you’re a seller, check out my article on home improvements that give you the best bang for your buck.
