5 things you can do if your home is not selling
Most people who really want to sell their homes fail to consider the fact that a lot of homes don’t sell. If you are one of the unlucky ones, don’t panic. Try to discover why your home is lingering on the market, while others around seemingly sell fast and easy. Below are some tips to root our the root cause of your troubles.
The price is right — not
Many sellers rely on emotion instead of facts when determining the listing price for their homes. This becomes a case of alternate facts vs true facts. Hint: true facts are better. Some sellers have done little or absolutely no research into the actual value of their home. Instead, the rely on emotion or base their selling price on what they need or want to move on to their next home.
Recognizing the true real estate market value of your home will certainly help you from having this problem. You have to know what is going on in the market. Start by reading the news and then consult with some real estate professionals.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If it is, then fix it!
If a buyer wants your home badly enough, he/she might (may, maybe, possibly) make you an offer, but even if they do, they will take the work needed into account and lower their offering price considerably. In other words, if you don’t fix the issues before selling, you will not only likely end up getting less for your home than you want, but less than you would have gotten if you had of fixed the problems. You can think of this loss as an “inconvenience tax” that the buyer is charging you for giving them work to do.
’Tis the season, any season.
Do not pull your home off the market if you think you missed the season. If you really want to sell, hang in there. There are buyers — the ones who really want to buy, searching during low inventory times in the year (like holiday seasons). Besides, real estate boards keep and share historical records of all the homes for sale in the local market, so that’s always going to be out there for everyone to see.
Incentivize your buyers!
Include all of the appliances in the list price. Throw in the hot tub and the new living room furniture. Make your home as easy to buy with any incentives (besides price) you can think of to encourage a fast offer.
All the world’s a stage…and we are merely players.
Give your home the “broadway treatment”. This is not the same thing as sprucing things up. This is a makeover!
- Professional stagers will give you a consultation for as little as $200. They will spend time giving you lots of pointers that will make your home showroom-ready — like a model home.
- Visit some model homes to get some ideas.
- Buy some fashion magazines.
- Read some websites.
- At least ask your realtor for his or her expert opinion. I visit about 400 houses a year. Over the past ten years, I’ve seen some beauties (and some real beauties) and I can tell you what you could, should and must do to get your home market ready.
Getting your true market price
The fact is that a lot of homes don’t sell. Even if we knock out the people who don’t really want to sell, will sell if only they can get “their price”, or are otherwise fooling around wasting a lot of everyone’s time…even if we know those guys out, selling a house many people discover is a lot harder than they think. I hope the five points above will help you determine where you might have gone wrong.
