Why Homes Don’t Sell

 
1 Presenting the Home as a Product

Seldom is a home we live in ready to go on the market.  Living in a home is definitely different than selling it.  Not properly preparing a home for sale is the primary cause of a poor listing.  All property has value, but buying a home is an emotional event for the future owner.  Perception is all there is in marketing.  How potential buyers perceive a home starts from the first time they hear of it and ends at the buying decision.  It is important to stand back and look at the home you have lived in from a potential buyer’s perspective.  It sometimes helps to remember back to when you bought it. 

2 Marketing Effectiveness

Today, traditional marketing is often part of the reason a listing does not sell. The traditional four Ps work, but not for selling a home.  Put up a sign.  Put it in the MLS.  Place it in the newspaper.  And Pray that it sells.  This works well for the agent because these actions generate calls from potential buyers that may buy a home – perhaps a different home than yours.  It’s the most effective, and inexpensive way for agents to obtain buyer leads.  The same goes for open houses and print advertising.  Strangely enough, a high number of showings is often a poor indicator of effective marketing for you home. Agents may be bouncing clients off of your home to make other sales.  Ever wonder why an agent will accept a commission discount to list your home? Saving some money on listing a home is a false economy for you, the homeowner.  Ineffective (cheap) marketing leaves only a lower price as the primary sales incentive.  Today’s buyers are different.  Selling a home requires a new kind of marketing.  This is the information age.  More than 80% of buyers today do their searches on-line.  They want high quality, multimedia presentations that excite them about buying your home.  Your marketing must be focused on selling your home, giving potential buyers what they want.  It is quite different than the old four Ps.


3 Presenting the Price

The listing price is the single most important factor in selling a home.  You need some really accurate professional help in predicted what a buyer will pay for your home.  Not easy, but important decisions are seldom easy.  Too low, bad idea!  Most owners make the serious mistake of listing at too high a price with the thought that they can always come down.  This misses the most important sales opportunities at the most important time – the very beginning of the listing.  Sorry that’s just the way Real Estate marketing works.  Once missed, the property typically sits, and develops a stigma of being overpriced. Subsequent price reductions only reinforce this stigma of being hard to sell, and usually produce a lower sale price than would have been obtained if the price had been listed correctly in the first place.  Think about it.  The owner and agent are spending time and money advertising something that’s not true - the real price of the home.  No amount of otherwise effective marketing can overcome mishandling the sales price.

 You can make some changes that will sell your home.  Many homes are selling quickly and at acceptable prices, even in today’s market.  It has always been that way.  If history repeats itself, and it usually does, there will always be successful listings and some that are not – regardless of the market.  There are things you can do to have a successful listing and sale.  The other pages here should give you some specific help.  Remember, it all starts at your kitchen table with making the right contract to sell your home.