I admit that this wasn't an email into my inbox. But, it is a question that I have received, investigated, and actually seek out.

Lane, we had our house on the market for ___ months. Why didn't it sell?

There is an easy answer, and a not very easy answer. First I'll give you the easy answer...

Your agent didn't do the right things to make your house sell.

Is that what you wanted to hear? If it is, and you don't like to be challenged or have someone tell you things you don't like to hear... stop. Do not read any further. Here is a video to distract you...

Are you still with me?

Ok.  Here is what it comes down to.  A buyer that wanted to buy your house didn't find it.  If they did, they didn't like the price. 

But why didn't they make an offer?  We might have negotiated.

There are two challenges here.  Did they see it?  If your home was priced at $424,900, and perhaps should have been priced at $399,900, then it is likely that the right buyer had no idea your home was available.  Not only was it not priced right, it was priced out of their range.  

Pricing is extremely important.  Your home has to be priced right for the right buyer to even see it.

And remember, this isn't 2005.  The house up the street that sold for $425k is no longer a relevant comp.  That was then.  This is now.  While a couple of years ago, the most important comps were sold properties, now the other competing listings are also very important.  Just like at the store, buyers don't go after the highest priced property first.  

We priced it competitively with the other houses near us.

Then the next thing we would look at is the condition and presentation.  Not just whether it had a nice roof, and the grass is cut, but whether the colors evoked a positive response from the buyer, and furniture arranged to best show off the size and shape of the rooms.  

Staging is another tool, just like price and marketing.

And it doesn't stop there.  The presentation begins well before the buyer steps through the door... or even into the agent's car.  The presentation begins where the buyer searches... the internet.  That means that after the home is properly staged and buffed to shine, there needs to be a pant-load of pictures for the buyer to peruse.   Perhaps it might also be a great idea to have an interactive virtual floor plan and interactive design program. 

Lane, it couldn't have looked prettier... to buyers, not just us... and it was well presented on the web.

We can't just expect that the right buyer is going to bump into the house in the MLS and Craigslist.  She might.  Or not.  We have to take advantage of the variety of opportunities to market the house to the right people... people that might be the right buyers.

Market Listings Strategically.

It isn't a coincidence that I picked a phrase with the initials MLS.  But, the point is that the MLS is just a start.  It is also important to get that wonderfully staged, beautifully photographed, fun and interactive presentation in front of people that would like to own that type of property.  Instead of shotgunning the marketing, and putting it in places that might have a lot of traffic, perhaps being a little more surgical might work better.  Don't put unique homes in front of average buyers, and do put it in front of unique buyers... the right unique buyers.  

If you took all of the right steps... be honest here... ALL of the right steps... your house should have sold.  But, if it didn't, there is one fall back.  In January, for every 100 properties that were newly listed, there were only 17 sales.   January is traditionally the low point of the year, but still, that ratio was less than 2/3rds of the number for the previous January.  And even in a strong market, where there is only a month or two of inventory... up to half of the listed homes won't sell.  

That puts us back to step one... Call me.