Reasons why homes don’t sell: If you've 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 is 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 a Buyer is willing to pay will eventually determine the final sales price.
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 Buyer's 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.
It’s the oldest cliché in the world, but it’s true. When it comes to real estate, it’s all about location! Things like how good the schools are, crime rates, shopping, dining, visual appeal of the neighborhood, noise or the smell of pollution can all affect 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.
Listing agents all use an aggressive marketing plan to market their listings, RIGHT? 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 Buyer's market, or maybe a cold market. But it all means the same thing: that home sales in the local area, or market, are sl