There are several reasons a home does not sell, but 3 main reasons!

There are several reasons a home does not sell, but 3 main reasons! Which one was yours?

1.     Price! This is a Realtors favorite reason for homes not selling, obviously everything will sell if the price is reduced enough, but there are oftentimes other issues that are keeping the home from selling and usually the price is not the issue. Agents go to classes to learn how to sell other agents “expired” listings and the one thing they are taught over and over is to get a price reduction. I have found several times that I can actually get more than the previous agent because they missed one or two other key marketable items.

2.     Pricing! This is very different than price and agents make this mistake all the time. Consider for example a home that is valued at $500K, more often than not an agent will list this home at $499K. I call this “retail” pricing, something that was dreamed up years ago to offer a perceived value below the actual price. The reality is, when a buyer is searching for a home, or an agent for a buyer that is qualified to buy a $500K home, they will do a search between $450-500K, yep the house shows up, however those that can afford this home much easier do not even know it exists, they are qualified up to $550K or $600K, so their search will be from $500-600K and the will never even see your home. This is a double whammy, because if a buyer does find your home and can only afford up to $500K they will either make a lesser offer or ask for more items at inspection, whereas the buyer that can qualify for another $100K will more than likely offer a full price or much closer to full price and ask for less inspection items. Plus you are now getting twice as many buyers viewing the home, those searching for $450-500K and those searching $500-600K.

3.     Marketing a home to the wrong audience! This is perhaps the biggest agent mistake. I can’t tell you the number of times I picked up a listing that expired and easily sold it by making one small adjustment in the marketing. Example, listing a home as “on the golf course” when it is not, you are targeting the wrong audience, you might get people to the home, but they really want to be on the course. My favorite example - years ago a friends fiancé called me to help sell their condo, it was a one bedroom with a loft in a very desirable part of town. It was listed as a 2 bedroom for 9 months with over 100 showings and no offers. I said, “you do not have to hire me, just tell your agent to change the listing to a one bedroom”, the agents response, “we have had over 100 showings and no offers we need to reduce the price”, The listing expired, I re-listed the next day at full price, in two weeks we had 4 showings, one full price offer and one at 4% over asking, because they were the “right” buyers. I would rather have one “right” buyer for my listings than 100 wrong buyers.

Yes, there are more reasons why homes do not sell, but I see these three time and time again and they can all be adjusted.