Top 5 Reasons Your Home Didn't Sell & How We Can Fix It
The Greater Los Angeles Market is one in which homes move relatively fast. Buyers are coming putting in offers with there pre-approval letters from lenders, which make their offers stronger. Buyers are also submitting offers above asking days after a home hits the market, but sometimes a property just stays there for months on end and doesn’t end up selling, despite there being a vast difference between the number of people buying properties & the number of properties out there.
Here are the Top 5 Reasons a home ends up on the market past the expiration date:
Overpriced
“Their property down the street sold for $1 million, and mine is definitely nicer”
It just might be nicer, but it also might not be. I’m not saying you don’t have a lovely home, but they might have some more amenities, a newer roof, or an updated kitchen, amongst many other reasons. Now just because their home sold for more than yours, or above it’s value, doesn’t mean your home is worth less now. Their home selling for that value actually raises the value yours would have sold. Now it’s just human nature to value your home at the price it’s worth to you, but at the end of the day, the value of your home is worth what somebody else is willing to pay.
To solve this, it’s best to put the property on the market at a value below what the comps in the area are selling. For example, a home that is worth $1.1 million, and is listed at $999K, leads to more eyes, because it comes up in the search for people looking for homes under $1 million. Now the moment the property goes on the market at this lower price, you can prevent from excepting the offer at the listed price by deciding on a day that you and the agent will review the offers a week or two (I prefer two weeks because then there’s more of an opportunity for buyers & agents to see it during open houses).
Doesn’t Show to it’s Potential
You’ve got a lovely kitchen but it’s got dirty dishes in the sink, or the yard is gorgeous, but it’s been let go a little because you’re moving out, and you planned on being gone sooner rather than later, or you’ve been there awhile and since you’re moving why would you paint the walls?
These are all valid thoughts, but would you want to move into a place and see the worst in it from the go? Of course not, those small changes that you’ve been putting off because you’ve been planning on moving soon, still need to be attended to, in order to sell.
Have a cleaning crew come through or spend a day giving it a deep clean, you’re going to need to do it before you move out anyways, so why not do it now? Or you can give the walls a nice paint job if it’s a bare wall, the easiest and most cost effective way is some white paint, since it’ll be easier for the new owners to envision what ideas they have for their new home.
Not Convenient to Show
This is when you have either a tenant living there or it’s still occupied by you the owner, and it’s only available at certain times. Sometimes potential buyers aren’t able to see it during the open houses, if there were even any. It could also only be viewable upon receipt of an offer. Buyers are busy and if they can’t see their possible future home, they more than likely won’t even submit an offer. To fix this, we can set up that it is viewable with a 24 hour notice, as well as certain times through out the week that work for both the tenant & the seller, including open houses for both potential buyers & brokers opens.
Poor Marketing
The property wasn’t properly marketed to the neighbors or other agents in the area. This can be improved by door knocking the neighbors and seeing if they know anyone who is interested in moving into the neighborhood, sending out mailers to the surrounding area, or focusing on a specific feature of the home like a wine cellar or pool to people who have an interest in those areas.
Realtor
I don’t like to ever throw my fellow realtors under the bus, but sometimes this is the cause of a home not selling. It happens, the current realtor could be too busy to show it, or just flat out unresponsive. It happens. The fix to this, hire Sold by Swan, we want your property sold just as much as you do!
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone (216)210-0061 or email dave@soldbyswan.com