David Craven : Top 10 Reasons Houses Do Not Sell and What To Do

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 11:26 AM David Craven

Top 10 Reasons Houses Do Not Sell and What To Do | Youtube video

There is never a better time than now to reevauate why your house has not sold. Just as real estate buyer's have been empowered in their search for homes online, seller's can be empowered to sell their home faster through knowledge and making the necessary adjustments. David Craven, REALTOR, with RE/MAX Realtec Group has provided the 'bottom line" advice with what he has observed as the top ten reasons houses do not sell and what to do to overcome these obstacles.

10. Floor Plan - Buyers can not always visualize how their furniture will fit in the floor plan of your house. Sellers with the help of their REALTORS can rearrange their furniture to maximize its appeal to make the house more applicable for a larger number of buyers. This can help overcome the buyer's "confusion objection".

9. House Stinks - The smell of cigarettes and animals to a buyer is not the smell of money to sellers. Many buyers will just "keep on walking'. Get rid of the odors and not just fight the symptom by masking it with deodorizers. Deoderizers just create red flags that suggest a problen is being hid.

8. Curb (un)appeal(ing) - Buyers often make a decision to buy a house prior to walking in the front door. (Remember the front door is the only way a buyer should first enter a house). Sellers can make quick fixes to enhance their curb appeal through landscape, exterior paint, and at the very least paint or fix the front door.

7. Do not ignore the 'handwriting on the wall". - This is what happens when a seller ignores the real and somewhat obvious reasons why the house is not selling. Selling a home in this market requires a team effort with the seller and the listing agent along with the buyer and the buyer's agent. This team effort needs to be a win win. Symptoms of ignoring the "handwriting on the wall" disease is when the sellers blames others individuals and conditions when the seller has been refusing to listen to the good advice given by a trusted real estate professional such as a REALTOR, appraisor, or home inspector. Some of the others symptoms of this potentially costly disease are showing appointments based solely on sellers convenience, allowing a home for sale in the over personalized or clutter state along with refusing to stage for success, and sticking to a seller's price and terms during negotiation when pride is the reason. A successful seller will often not just focus on how their house compares to their neighbor's house instead they adjust their method of selling their home (and Price) to what is relevant to their competition in the real estate market.

6. Seller is a FSBO - The majority of buyers have demonstated that they prefer to work with a real estate professional. A for sale by owner eliminates the majority of the available buyers when they choose to go it alone.

5. Location - often determines the quantity of buyers who will desire your home and who will see the benefits of living there. Marketing that makes a house stand out (exposed) along with focusing on any and all positive features in a house will help sell a house in a poor location. A good price is a positive feature for a poorly located house.

4. Economy - A buyer's market is not the problem, it is symtom of a broader economic problem. Realtors have often used the criteria of more than six or seven months supply of housing inventory is a buyers market and less than five or six months inventory of houses is a sellers market. (Yes, there are others variables such as buyer and sellers motivation). The number one reason for a buyer's market is weak employment outlook. If a buyer is unemployed or believes they will lose their jobs, then they will not buy. Believing housing prices will decrease will also cause a buyer to delay the purchase. Interest rates will affect what a buyer can and will buy. Traditionally when interest rates are rising buyers will get off the fence and buy because they see their housing cost start to rise. Finally too many houses on the market allow some houses to be overlooked because they did not stand out. Real estate purchases have tradionally been based on the economic principle of "law of substitution". By addressing the principles outlined in this article sellers will be better prepared to allow their house to stand out among their competition in this buyer's market.

3. Condition - Fix it and move on. Poor condition of a house can create an assumption in the buyers mind that there are more things wrong than there actually is.

2. Marketing - Passive marketing in a buyer's market is ineffective. With approximately 90% of buyers empowered to look for real estate online then houses for sale need to be all over the internet. Real estate listing
syndication has become essential, meaning the greater number of real estate web sites that a home is listed on then the greater the probability it will be found. (Period). Another way of emphasing this is "if you want to find a needle in a haystack more quickly then put more needles in the haystack".

All listings need good photographs. Since there are a large number of houses on the market, buyers and buyer's agents will choose or eliminate prospective houses based on the photos (or even the quality of the photos). If the photos do not create a desire or demonstrate a benefit to owning your house then they offer little or no value and can be a reason for a house not to be shown. Finally all houses need a marketing plan based on the individual home's needs and the sellers' needs.

1. Price - can potentially overide everything else. Pricing a home lower than what the market dictates based on the seller's time frame is obviously a waste of money. Pricing a house too high will eliminate a large number of buyers and the buyers who do see the overpriced home will compare it to the properly priced houses. This pricing strategy can actually cost a seller more money over time than an underpriced home. The over priced home is a great marketing plan if you want to help sell your neighbors home. Does your home have functional obsolescence (example four bedrooms and one bath) or economic obsolescence (example highway noise or border a railroad ) then be sure you have taken the appropriate price adjustment.

Additional information on how a seller can stand out in this market by following the link below.

http://www.davidcraven.com/Home_Seller/page_2183651.html

David Craven
RE/MAX Mountain Realty
David@DavidCraven.com
www.DavidCraven.com

Watch Youtube video that is below for additional information on how to sell your house...

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Top 10 Reasons Houses Do Not Sell and What To Do | Youtube video

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