It’s hard to believe in this active Sellers’ market, some homes actually don’t sell… or at least, they aren’t selling as fast as they should. Yes, it’s OUR job as an agent to get your home sold, but there are plenty of potential roadblocks. Here are five ways YOU may be the reason your home isn’t selling:
1. Location
We’ve all heard the retail axiom, “location, location, location!” Well, it applies to real estate especially. At some point in time, you chose to buy your home where it sits right now. Unfortunately, your home may not actually be in a desirable location for today’s buyers. Maybe it’s too far from schools, shopping, major highways, or recreation areas. Perhaps the overall neighborhood has deteriorated or is in transition.
In fact, the very issue prompting you to sell your home could be its location; the same issue preventing it from selling. It’s seemingly not something you can help or be blamed for, but there’s good news. The way to “fix” the location problem is to make price adjustments that adequately reflect this disadvantage. Which brings us to our next point…
2. Price
You priced your home too high for the market, and refuse to do strategic price reductions. That’s right, YOU priced your home, not your agent; that decision was yours alone. Hopefully, your agent gave you a custom Home Value Report which gave you useful data and statistics, as well as an estimated value and price recommendation for home, based on your neighborhood, style of home, and its condition. Maybe you didn’t accept that recommendation, insisting on a higher list price that scares away buyers, or perhaps you and your agent didn’t discuss any strategic pricing options. Maybe your house got shown a few times but you’ve ignored the price feedback from the agents who showed it to their buyers.
How do we know it’s overpriced? We’re experienced agents with dozens of sold transactions under our belt. We’ve seen the appraisals come in for every one of those deals. We have a good idea of how appraisers work and try to emulate their criteria when preparing comps to give our clients our price recommendations. Plus, we’re very familiar with the markets that we service. Can you say that for yourself? If not – and you still insist on overruling your agent’s counsel on price – then you may be the reason offers are coming in.
3. Condition
You’ve lived in this home for how many years now? Maybe all that time, you’ve ignored the siding that started to rot from moisture, and now it’s crumbling. Maybe you’ve also ignored the “mildew” from that leaking pipe, the overflowing toilet, or the leaking roof from three years ago and you’re telling yourself there’s no way it could be mold. What about your wishful thinking that nobody will notice those holes in the kids’ bedroom walls? Or the fact that you’ve never steam cleaned your carpets? And maybe you’ve just been too busy to repair your ice maker, or take care of your weedy lawn, or put fresh mulch in the flower beds.
Basically, if you didn’t take pride in the maintenance and upkeep of your home, it shows. These little things that are typically easy or relatively inexpensive to maintain or repair are a BIG deal to buyers, and believe me – every potential buyer who has walked into your home notices those things.
4. You Chose the Wrong Agent
This is the one you’re hoping you can blame the agent for the cruddy job he or she is doing. But you can’t blame them entirely because YOU hired them. Maybe you didn’t ask the right questions, or you found out too late they don’t have the right experience. Even worse, maybe you just realized that they aren’t marketing your home very well (if at all). Maybe they’re ducking your calls, texts and emails, and they really aren’t offering you any good advice or counsel at all. All they really did was pop your home on the MLS and stick a sign in your yard. Or, heaven forbid, you hired a “Discount Broker.”
Choosing the wrong agent is a fixable problem as well; you just have to wait until your listing agreement expires, or ask your current agent if they will allow you to cancel your listing agreement without a cancellation fee.
5. You’re Selling It “By Owner”
If you took this route to sell your home, you probably already know why it hasn’t sold.
But if you’re still asking yourself about the reason your home isn’t selling, step over to your nearest mirror and ask that question out loud. Then give your best answer out loud. You may not like what you hear, but YOU are the main reason it hasn’t sold. All of the previous reasons above apply to you and you only.
It’s not too late to make a change and get your home sold. Call us today and we’ll give you a free home value estimate. We’d be happy to show you all the ways we will market your home to get it sold.