Time for some tough love. It’s not 2021, 2022, or even 2023 anymore. And we probably will never be back in those unprecedented times ever again in terms of real estate. What do I mean?
Picture this: It’s summer 2021. You’ve been thinking about selling your house for quite some time but never really thought you’d actually do it. Then your neighbor put his house on the market last weekend. It’s a dump that needs a lot of work, but he listed it for only $10,000 less than the guy down the block whose house is in pretty good shape, got multiple offers over the asking price, and will be walking away with cash.
You figure it couldn’t hurt to try. Your house is probably similar to both, maybe even a little better than the nicer one because your yard is so nice. You figure you’ll throw your house on the market for $50,000 more than that house that just went under contract just to see what happens. You don’t even make it to the first weekend for the open house. On your first day on the market you have 5 back-to-back showings and receive three cash offers all over your asking price. You choose the one where the buyer had the fewest contingencies, and now you figure you’ll take that cash and buy a place in North Carolina.
WAKE UP!!! This ain’t that anymore.
You need an actual strategy now to sell your house, which means you need an agent who actually knows what he or she is doing. See, back during the pandemic real estate frenzy, a lot of people got their real estate licenses, and they didn’t even need to know how to properly market a home to get it sold. Unfortunately, buyers and sellers quickly discovered that the other reason you hire an agent is to guide you through the transaction. In reality, that’s the biggest reason you hire an agent – to help you navigate all the milestones you have to meet once under contract, from the offer to the closing table, but that’s a topic for a different blog post on another day.
Today we need to talk about why homes don’t sell. In other words, if all the other homes in your market are taking between 30-60 days to go under contract and yours has been sitting there for close to 90, what’s going on?
It’s probably one of these 4 things:
But wait! Before we get to the meat and potatoes of this blog post, I’d like to point out that real estate is market specific, so while the content I’m about to present is generally true as a rule of thumb, in certain circumstances these four things won’t apply.
For example, in Florida right now, the condo market has slowed dramatically while the single family-housing market is still doing pretty well. In many cases, if a condo is sitting on the market right now, it’s probably because buyers are worried about increased monthly dues and/or possible assessments. If you own a condo or are thinking of buying one and none of this sounds familiar, please contact us for an explanation.
In the meantime, if your market isn’t experiencing any trouble right now and you can’t figure out why your home isn’t selling…
- Check your photos
Does your house show well in pictures? Since most buyers start their search online, you must capture their attention with the photos. The house needs to look so good in pictures that people will want to see it in person.
Also, when appropriate, your agent should use drone photos. If your home is on a golf course or near the beach, for example, drone photos can highlight the desired location.
And if your agent is sharp, your agent is using video marketing and posting short and longform video tours on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. This not only increases the number of eyes on your listing but also helps with out-of-town buyers looking to relocate.
But if your pics are good and the potential buyer has scheduled a showing, I hope the neither the photographer nor the agent didn’t try any funny business because you must…
- Make sure your house looks just as good as it does in the pics if not better in person!
When buyers show up and see that editing was used to make the house look less lived-in, that strategic placement was used to hide damage to a wall, that your clean and organized house only looked that way because everything was shoved in closets on photo day but now it looks like a hoarder lives there, you’re in trouble.
Let’s talk about one thing that doesn’t show up in pictures: odor. We have a saying: If we can smell it, we might not be able to sell it.
Give potential buyers a pleasant experience when they see your home in person. Remember: you want them to be able to picture themselves living in the house. If they can’t do that, they’re not making an offer.
Maybe you had some people schedule a showing the first week or two the house was on the market, but now it’s crickets. That could be because your agent isn’t doing his or her job, so…
- Make sure your agent has a comprehensive marketing plan.
I hate to say it, but a many agents think their job is to get the listing, take the photos, put the sign in the yard, put the listing on the MLS, and wait for other agents to bring buyers.
We’ve actually had several agents in our neighborhood say to us, “I have a new listing at 123 Main St. Bring a buyer and get it sold for me.”
Ummm…no.
If we have an interested buyer, obviously we will bring that buyer to see the listing, but it’s not our job to drum up interest for a listing that’s not ours.
When interviewing agents, ask, “Give me some examples of the strategic ways you plan to market this new listing, as well as what you will do if the house is still on the market after 30 days.”
If the agent can’t show some version of a plan, discuss it in detail, or send it to you by the end of the business day, that’s not the agent for you. Any agent who has an actual marketing plan would love to show it off and talk about it with you.
If your house looks good in photos, shows well in person, and is being marketed properly by your agent, you most likely have one of two problems – either the location is bad, or you’re priced too high.
And guess which one you can’t change?
But either way, it comes down to price, because if your house checks all the boxes but it’s in a bad location, you’d probably still be able to find a buyer if the price was right.
- Numbers don’t lie!
Ask your agent to go over a Comparative Market Analysis with you for all homes that recently sold that are similar to yours, especially in size, level of updates, and location. Look at what is currently pending. How does your home compare to all of these? And what is currently active on the market? In other words, what is your competition doing?
Look at all of this data through the eyes of the buyer. Remember that buyers do not have an emotional attachment to your home. Buyers don’t care what you paid for the home when you bought it, how much money you put into the home, or what you want or need to make from your sale. Buyers are quite savvy and have access to info online, so they will not willingly overpay.
When all else fails it comes down to price.
So objectively look at your house through the lens of these 4 items to make the necessary changes for your house to go from For Sale to Sold.