Why isn’t my home selling : A Guide to Home Sellers

why-isnt-my-home-selling in PhoenixI just read an article in one of the top real estate industry magazine, Realty Times. Journalist Hank Miller discussed 15 reasons why your home isn’t selling. As agents who are often called after a home seller has gotten frustrated with their home not selling, we thought Hank’s article was pretty much spot on. Below we’ll share some of the ideas shared in the Realty Times article with our own commentary answering the question, why isn’t my home selling. If you’d like to read the original yourself, just click on the link below. Otherwise, we’ll be providing a brief summary in this Urban Team report.

Reasons Your Home Isn’t Selling

Mr. Miller started out his article with a great statement we’d like to share:

The reason(s) why a home fails to sell are not a mystery. Selling a home is not splitting an atom; when the three key factors are aligned (price-appeal-exposure), homes sell.  Heavily influencing this is the seller’s choice of listing agent; not understanding how to choose a real estate agent can immediately taint a listing, costing the seller both time and money.

Reason #1 for why isn’t my home selling

Miller says the #1 reason has to do with the agent you choose to sell your home. He advises home sellers to only use a full=time real estate agent with a confirmed track record. We agree for many reasons.. Selling a home actually takes a lot of skill sets. If your agent only sells a couple homes a year, can he or she actually gain the skills required to effectively? Would you engage the services of a car mechanic who only works on 3 or 4 cars a year?

We were recently asked to evaluate a listing for someone whose condo wasn’t selling. He liked the low commission the agent offered but wasn’t happy that his place had not sold  in the 5 months since it was put on the market. We found 5 rather serious mistakes with the listing including it was not showing up as a condo when someone was searching for a condo. That was just one of the problems… there were several more.  BTW… the agent is a commercial real estate agent, not a residential one. I am not saying the guy’s an idiot, he simply doesn’t know how to sell residential properties or effectively  use our MLS system.

Miller goes one to talk about another classification of agent… the yes man. There are agents who don’t care about anything but getting listing. Data and facts are of little concern. They do know one thing… if they tell you they can get more a person’s home than any other agent they have a good shot at getting the listing. The only thing they have to worry about is how they’ll get you to drop the price down the line so the property will actually sell. We consider this a pretty slimy sales tactic but we’ve lost a number of listing opportunities  to this scheme.

why isn't my home selling?

Bad pictures do not help gain interest in your home. This is an actual photo we found on ARMLS.

Reason #2 for why isn’t my home selling

Miller says poor exposure is another big reasons homes do not sell. Poor exposure shows up in many ways:

  • Poor information and descriptions entered into the MLS system: Home buyers are often first introduced to your home via sites like Zillow.com and Realtor.com. These sites get their information from MLS systems. This includes the description of the home, pictures, virtual tours and details about the property. If the description is lackluster, they may never go further.
  • Bad Pictures and No Virtual Tour: Today’s real estate buyer wants to see lots of quality pictures and a virtual tour. Make sure your agent knows what they are doing or hires a professional who does. We have a feature onour Facebook page called Bad Picture Tuesday where we show photos from the MLS that are simply abysmal. Homes with great pictures and virtual tours attract a larger audience and are more likely to sell.
  • A Lack of Mobile Device Marketing Skills: Today’s home shoppers use their phones and tablets to find a property. There is a reason companies like Zillow have mobile apps… consumers want it. 2013 industry stats suggest over 60% of home searches are done on mobile devices and only a small percentage of real estate agents understand and employ mobile marketing techniques. If your listing is not mobile friendly you are missing out of a huge pool of people looking for homes.

Reason #3 for why isn’t my home selling

Poor response time to buyer calls and emails affects home sales. Home buyers, especially those using the internet, want and expect fast response times. Both the agent and property seller need to be quick when responding to emails and phone calls.

Reasons #4 for why isn’t my home selling

The Realty Times article also says poor showing and visual appeal is a big reason properties do not sell. This is especially true in the current Phoenix market. Since it is no longer a seller’s market and lots of inventory is available, homes need to look their best or be priced to reflect the condition. We have an article on the site that talks about staging your home to sell. We’ve found that well presented homes do sell faster and for more money than not so pretty places… not rocket science is it?

Reasons #5 for why isn’t my home selling

Over priced, according Miller, is often the biggest stumbling block. Here is what he has to say on the subject:

This most often the reason that a home fails to sell is price. Few owners can be completely objective and answer “what’s my home worth”? Most friends cannot, many agents will not….but the buyers certainly can. The professional agents and appraisers certainly can and will be. It takes minutes to run comps and eliminate overprice homes from the list right from the desk top.

It’s been repeated and it’s been demonstrated; properly priced homes end up selling faster and with a higher sale to list ratio than those that are overpriced and languish. In tight markets, multiple offer situations occur with well-presented and accurately priced homes; this is something a seller can leverage to their advantage.

We truly hope this information has been of benefit. Putting your home on the market is a trying experience for everyone, having it linger on the market unsold makes it even harder.

Best to you,

Gene Urban & Ron Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777
Gene@UrbanTeamAZ.com

connecting people to the perfect place for over 20 years

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