Selling your house is not the easiest thing to do and it’s pretty common to hear people asking why their houses are not selling the way they should. Are you one of them? You should consider that there are many factors that may have contributed to why your house is not sold yet. You may have missed some important details that hamper potential buyers from even taking a closer look.
Here are the top five reasons why your house is still in the real estate market and what you can do to speed up its purchase.
1. Your house is in bad shape
Trying to sell something that would be disappointing to buyers is a wrong move. Your toilet’s not working. The pipes are all leaking. The roof is crumbling and the wallpapers are peeling. If you’re actually selling your house with these kinds of things, you have to think again. Your house doesn’t have to look grandiose; it just has to be neat and functional.
Fix everything that needs to be repaired and stress on the strengths of your house instead of its weaknesses. Do you have solar panels? Are your floors solid oak? Impress potential buyers with your house’s special features that they may not easily find in other houses for sale.
2. You’re selling your house but you’re still living in it
Keep in mind that if you’re planning to sell because you have to change residence or you’re planning to live in a smaller or bigger house, you should evacuate your house meant for sale. It could be a big turn off to your prospective buyers if you and your family will still occupy the house.
Your kids’ clutter for one is likely observable and you will not be able to present your house well if you’re still using it. Besides, it’s not going to be a pleasant tour if you present each room and your things are still scattered about.
3. You have the wrong real estate agent
Real estate agents are very important because most of the time it’s all up to them whether your house will be sold or not. These people do all the advertisement and marketing talk with your prospective buyers and should be assertive enough to not take “no” for an answer. They should be articulate enough to present your house well and should know its history and strengths. You may do this yourself but if you’re not a people person, you may not know how to please your buyers, much less know how to talk them into buying your house.
Real estate agents on the other hand know exactly how to negotiate and market your house. So be careful that you pick the right and not the wrong one—it’s important that the real estate agent you choose also has a sincere appreciation for what your house has to offer. A good agent would be able to market a drab old house into something “that has a distinctive old-world charm”.
4. You don’t advertise enough
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ would be good places to tell your friends and acquaintances that you have your house for sale. You can also have it listed on online shopping sites such as eBay and Craigslist. You would be able to put up a lot of photos of the house’s interiors and exteriors on these sites. You may also post it on newspaper classifieds.
Sometimes it’s not enough to just send word out to friends that you’re selling; you have to broadcast it as much as you can since you don’t know when opportunity will strike and who might be interested to buy. Have all the bases covered to let people know about the house for sale. If you don’t advertise well enough, don’t expect to sell your house quickly—or at all.
5. You try to sell your house as if you still live in it
Have you ever looked at magazines where houses for sale are featured? The way they are presented inside makes you want to live in one of them right? That’s the very same way that you should be able to present your house. Don’t present it as if you still live in it.
How? Make your house stick to the neutral house motifs: modern, Victorian, or Gregorian in style and taste. If you love Elvis Presley and you have his photos as wallpaper in your house, better change remove them or you’ll likely lose any prospective buyer—unless they’re Elvis Presley fans as well.
Besides, your taste and other people’s would be entirely different so you have to keep your house looking and feeling like an open canvas they can decorate themselves. Focus on showing them spaces they can use as a library, a corner office, or a den, but don’t tell them what they should do, because that’s what you did. Make them feel like the house is already theirs.
Selling your pre-loved house may not be easy, but it shouldn’t be too hard either. Do things right if you want to sell right away. A month or two is already a long time to wait and if you go beyond that time then maybe you have to rework your marketing strategy. Try to make your advertisement more eye-catching and more descriptive. Select well-lighted photos that show both furnished and bare interiors. Fix the fixtures and hire a plumber to make sure all the pipes are working. Most of all, hire a responsible and dependable real estate agent who can help you sell your house the fastest and easiest way possible.
So if you want to sell your house, just remember these things: impress them, present your house well, and hire someone who’ll do the marketing and socializing. For more info, you may visit jensenandcompany.com for additional insights about selling your home. You may also refer to other third-party sites if you wish to educate yourself more on how to redefine your house to make it more pleasing to potential buyers and how to increase its market value.
Kaylee is a real estate researcher from Michigan. She writes for several real estate companies, including jensenandcompany.com.
References
- Free from Broke: Why Isn’t My House Selling and How to Finally Get Your House Sold; [http://freefrombroke.com/why-isnt-my-house-selling-how-to-get-house-sold/]
- Realtor: Why Isn’t My Home Selling?; [http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/real-estate/sellers/why-isnt-my-home-selling.aspx?source=web]
- After Fifty Living: 5 Reasons Why Your House Isn’t Selling; [http://www.afterfiftyliving.com/lifestyle/activeliving/5_Reasons_Your_House_Isn_t_Selling/]
