Here are four reasons a home may fail to sell in our market.
In this market, selling your home isn’t all that hard if you stick to the basics. However, if you have some of the problems I’m discussing today, you may just end up sitting in an unsellable house for a while. These are the issues holding some sellers back that you’ll want to avoid if you want a smooth, successful sale:
1. Your home is ugly. By ‘ugly,’ we mean cluttered, outdated, dirty, and the like. Very few people besides investors looking for a deal can walk into an untidy mess of a home and see the potential. If you’re not willing to clean it up and make some overdue updates, you may not get it sold. The same goes for personalization—be sure to take down family photos and other personalized belongings to allow buyers to imagine themselves living there. And if your home has bold and unique patterns and color schemes, neutralize them. Everybody’s tastes are different; less is more when it comes to decor.
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The solution is to fix the issues or be prepared to lop off a
large portion of the price to compensate for them.
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2. Your price is unrealistic. This is the most common problem among homes that fail to sell. Even in a hot seller’s market, if your listing price is unrealistic, then you can expect your home to sit on the market for a while. Issues with pricing can usually be rectified by adjusting the price. One reason this occurs so often is that sellers tend to have an emotional attachment to their properties and find it difficult to be objective about their true value. If emotions are getting in the way, try to reframe the sale as a mere business transaction. Other times, sellers owe more than the home is worth or simply want a higher price, but they fail to realize that the market sets the price. If your home is sitting idle on the market, that’s the market’s way of saying your home is overpriced, and you need to listen.
3. Yours is a ‘project house.’ Sometimes sellers don’t want to put any money into fixing up the house before they put it on the market. After all, they don’t plan to live there anymore. But if a house looks as though it will cost half as much to repair or renovate as it does to purchase it, today’s buyer will be much more reluctant to purchase it, especially if there are comparable houses around it that require less work. The same goes for homes with strong pet or mildew odors. The solution is to fix the issues or be prepared to lop off a large portion of the price to compensate for them.
4. You are not cooperating. Being uncooperative is another reason that homes tend to be overpriced. Uncooperative sellers also tend to ignore the advice of their Realtors about keeping the home tidy and available when needed, being open to price reductions, and agreeing to terms when there’s a discussion about the contract. Try as best you can to make your home accessible and available to potential buyers, which includes keeping the place clean as well. Only taking showings by appointment or only during designated times will also severely cut down the number of showings you’ll get. If your home isn’t being shown, it won’t sell. To sell your home in this competitive market, you have to commit yourself to this process, which frankly can be inconvenient at times, but it will pay off in the end if you do.
If you have any further questions or are thinking of buying or selling real estate, give us a call to set up a confidential consultation. We’d love to help you.