Imagine if you will. After much thought and consideration, you decided to sell your house and move out of state. You researched agents, talked to a few, and decided to use the same person who represented you ten years ago when you bought your home. She did a fine job, and you have been getting her newsletters for years. The only thing is that your home has been on the market for about three months with very little activity. Now what do you do? What can you do if your home is not selling? I’ll explain.
12 Things You Can Do if Your Home Is Not Selling
- Adjust the Price – Price is the easiest thing to control, can overcome any deficiency, and is the most important part of any sales strategy. You need to understand how you are priced compared with the market. Look at competing listings, but it is even more important to know how your property compares with recent sales. This is especially critical in flat and declining markets where pricing matters most.
Resist the temptation to try to justify a high price. There may be other contributing factors besides price, so you need to look at those too, but it usually comes back to price. Smart sellers listen to the market and adjust. - Check the MLS – See how the home looks on the Multiple Listing Service. What goes on the MLS is critical because it is syndicated to every major real estate website in the world. The MLS is the most powerful tool there is to advertise a property. Once in a while, something goes wrong in the MLS. The address could be input incorrectly, or something looks off. Every agent who has been in the business a while has seen it happen.
This includes making sure it shows well with professional photography. Cell phones may come with good cameras these days, but it is still easy to tell when an agent cheeped out and used cell phone pictures for the MLS. Your property deserves professional photography. - Marketing – The MLS is the most important way a property is advertised, but should not be the only way a property is marketed. Additional promotion can help give an extra push. Examples include for-sale signs, email campaigns, flyers, newsletters, targeted social media, mailings, open houses, print ads, video, and word of mouth. The possibilities are endless.
Different agents will focus on different kinds of advertising and promotion based on their strengths, the specific market, and the particular property. Don’t fool yourself, the MLS is king, and all the advertising in the world can’t sell a property if the price is too high. However, don’t rule out additional advertising to boost a listing. - Clean It Up - Making your home fresh and clean can do a lot to help it sell. This includes things like fresh paint, new carpet, cleaning up the yard, taking down old, dark curtains, and deep cleaning. This is not the same as upgrades and renovations. This is just showing what you have in the best light. Don’t forget to pay attention to smell. Nothing turns off buyers more than a foul smell.
- Declutter – Clutter makes a property harder to sell. It is distracting and cheapens the property. Clutter ruins marketing photography and distracts buyers touring the property. Clutter makes it hard for buyers to think and visualize moving into a home. Plus, having the clutter gone will make your move easier.
- Depersonalize - When you move into a home, you personalize it. When it is time to sell, you depersonalize it. Pictures of your beautiful family and vacations are interesting. People touring your home may think so too, but we don’t want them thinking about your family. We want potential buyers to think about the home and how their family will feel living there.
- Stage It – Staging makes a home show better. It is often used to showcase a property that has been completely redone. Staging helps buyers make sense out of unusual spaces and gives homes a more finished look. It will not change the value of your home, so be careful thinking that the reason your home is not selling is that it is not staged. Staging involves renting furniture with a financial commitment from the seller. We have a blog that covers staging in more detail if it is something you are considering.
- Change Agents – Sometimes you need to change agents. Don’t change because they are telling you to adjust the price or clean up the property. That’s their job. You want a competent agent who will tell you what they really think and not what they think you want to hear. Agents can only do so much to bring in an offer. How they handle offers matters more.
If you did your homework before hiring your agent, it is probably not the agent. Who represents your matters? Do they have experience with a track record of success? Do they get back to you? Do they care about you, and do you trust them? Sellers may think that a listing agent is successful because they are good at handling buyers, but a successful listing agent is good at handling sellers. - Keep Waiting – Sometimes it just takes a little time, and that is Ok. This works best when prices are rising. Sellers want to be careful not to spend too much time on the market, especially when prices are flat or falling. If prices are falling, you will want to be more aggressive in pricing your home lower to avoid chasing the market down. This is called catching a falling knife because sellers can get hurt.
- Rest It - You can take the property off the market and try again. Maybe you are not that committed to selling or are not able to achieve a price that works for you. That’s ok. Sometimes people do this during the holiday season when it is typically slower. Just remember that if you do this, you will want to take it off for at least 90 days to reset the Days on Market in the MLS.
- Rent It – More and more property owners decide to rent their former homes instead of selling. There are many factors to take into consideration, and we have a separate blog that goes into this subject of lease versus selling your home in more detail if this is something you are considering. Just make sure you fully understand the tax implications, including potential tax right-offs and how long you must use your long-term capital tax exemptions for the sale of your primary residence.
- Reduce the Price - Price is on this list twice because it is that important. If nothing else is wrong, it is your price. It is almost like a law of physics. The more competitive your price, the more showings you will get and the quicker it will sell. Quit looking for shortcuts or a gimmick. Don’t get stuck on your initial asking price. Reducing your asking price is not the same as giving up realized dollars. Get the price right and your property will sell.
Bottom Line
If your home is listed and not selling, there are twelve things you can do:
- Adjust the price — price is under your control and will make up for everything else.
- Check the MLS — there may be a simple mistake or something not looking right.
- Marketing — advertising and promotion give an extra boost.
- Clean it up — nobody wants someone else’s dirt.
- Declutter — clutter is distracting.
- Depersonalize — make it less about you.
- Stage it — staging helps highlight the strengths of a home.
- Change agents — you need a competent agent with a track record of success.
- Keep waiting — selling can take time, and it helps if prices are rising.
- Rest it — take it off the market for at least 90 days to reset.
- Rent it — if you can’t get the price you need, you can always lease it.
- Reduce the price — your property will sell if it is priced right.
Price is listed twice because it is at least twice as important as anything else. Asking price is something you can control, and probably why your home is not selling.
Thank You
Thank you, and we hope that you found this helpful and informative. If so, please like, share, and subscribe.
For Real Estate Advice
If you are looking for a real estate broker to guide you through the sales process or a reliable property management company to help you handle a rental property in Long Beach, Los Angeles, or Orange County, California, or if you are just considering it and have a few questions about real estate, contact the Mike Dunfee Group today! We are happy to help.
Dunfee Real Estate Services, Inc. DRE # 02026232
