I can't seem to be able to sell my house. Why?
By the Editor of Private-Listings.com
There are a number of reasons why homes
don't sell. However, for our purpose, we'll stay focused by sticking with the obvious
and grouping the reasons in three categories: marketing, advertising and out-of-your-hands issues.
Marketing Issues
The house is overpriced
The killer reason why a home doesn't
sell is overpricing. Price is the first thing you should closely pay attention
to when you put your house on the market. Do your research, find out what others
around are charging, check the real estate publications for your area, etc.
Accept the fact that your house may not be worth what you first thought it was.
After all, this is one reason why you don't want to hire a real estate agent to
sell it for you: you need to save every penny you can in the process.
The house is in a bad location
It is possible that over the years
(since you bought, or built your home) the area you are located in has also grown,
or depreciated, to the point where, simply, one no longer wishes to live. The small
family-owned corner stores were replaced by a new mall, the street noise increased
to an unbearable level, the crime rate has gone up, etc. Overall - the old, clean,
quiet and friendly neighborhood you once knew has now become a busy commercial environment...
Or, simply, your home is located in a very desirable neighborhood, except, there is
no easy access to public transit. With gas prices soaring, direct access to public
transit is becoming a commodity; the presence of a nearby bus stop, subway or train
station can now make all the difference whether to buy, OR NOT TO BUY, a particular
home. What can we tell you? You know better your location and, if you are having
difficulties selling your home, remember that this is a variable that plays an
important role in the process.
The house has an overall poor appearance
It's hard to sell a house that is
not in prime shape. While there are numerous resources that will help you
improve the appearance of your house, in essence, this is a matter of common
sense. So, when you feel that your are ready to put the house on the market,
take a good look at it and ask yourself: "Will I buy this house?" Look
at it objectively, try to see it as buyers do.
How can you make improvements? To start with, here's a list
of items to look at and see if they need any improvements. Also, ask
your friends, or even prospective buyers who have seen it, for their
feedback and then work on the negative comments.
Advertising Issues
You are advertising in the wrong places
- Newspaper Classifieds. The worst place to advertise private sales
of real estate are the newsprint classifieds because they:
• are very expensive;
• include very limited information; no photos;
• are not published for more than five (5) days;
• usually get buried among hundreds of ads advertised by realtors;
• are very difficult to spot and read;
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ISSUES WITH THE NEWSPAPER CLASSIFIEDS »
- Craigslist Listings. Craigslist is a great online advertising tool
at anyone's disposal. However, posting there ads for private sales of real
estate may not necessarily work as you might hope. Learn why by reading this full page article »
Poor visual presentations in advertisements - if the ads look bad, your house looks bad.
You may be spending lots of money on
your ads but, what you don't know is that you might be advertising your house
in the wrong places/media, the wrong way, or simply by using ads that have an
overall poor visual presentation.
Do not confuse the fact of having your house listed in a thousand places, with
actually being able to run ads that will please prospective buyers to the point
where they will call you to make viewing appointments. This is one of the key
features that make the ads we design and publish work. Don't just take our word
for it. Check out the full page layouts that the small boxed ads are linked
to and judge for yourself. You'll understand why these ads sell.
Bad photos of the house are used in ads
Ultimately, a house is a product.
No matter how desirable to own a house might be, horrible photos of it (in
its ads) will do no good to your efforts to sell it.
If you are not sure how to take good photos of your home for sale, ask a
friend or someone who does to take some - actually, take lots of them. The
ad agency will select and use the best ones for the marketing materials.
A good visual presentation of your product (your house, that is) could
make all the difference in how soon it will sell, or (to stay in line with
our point here), if it will sell at all...
Lack of descriptive content in ads
As mentioned above, when you put
your house on the market, your primary advertising tool will be, well,...
ADS! In addition to the photos that you provide the advertising agency, you
also need to provide some descriptive information about the house. One
reason you may not get any inquiries about the house is because the
description you provided for your ads is either insufficient, or not
appealing. Again, put yourself in the buyers shoes and be objective as you
look at your ads. Do you/they understand what it is that you (they) are buying?
Are there enough details. For example, some prospective buyers may have
children. Did you mention anything about the great (safe) corner of your backyard
that you transformed into a playground? Did you mention that there is a park
nearby, an elementary school, etc...
Out-of-Your-Hands Issues
The history of the house
While not very common of a reason
to think about, there is a certain possibility that the house you are trying
to sell has a record of unfortunate past events (or tenants) that make it less
desirable to own. While this may not necessarily have anything to do with you
as an owner, the fact remains that due to its particular history the house may
be very difficult, in some cases even impossible, to sell.
The history of the house
Other Possible Issues
Special sale conditions
For very good reasons, some home
owners decide to put their property up for sale under rare conditions; for example
'life estate' arrangements. While there's nothing wrong with these arrangements
- legally or otherwise - most people are either not familiar with them (a fact
which requires that they do some extra homework before committing), or just not
interested. Thus, selling such properties becomes somewhat more difficult. See
this case of a life
estate arrangement which, in our opinion, is an awesome investment opportunity.
Thank you for reading this article! Read more articles »
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