Your House Did Not Sell???

I saw a great ad in the Saturday real estate section...The agent claimed that most listed homes do not sell and then offered to tell sellers why their houses did not sell. The sellers were directed to a web page. The web page is great! Especially if you are a real estate agent prospecting for new clients. But, if you are a seller looking for this information , it's not as readily available to you, as you might think. You have to enter your contact details to receive the information. Excellent prospecting technique. My hat is off to the agent!

The sad thing is that the offered information has probably already been communicated to the sellers; by their original listing agents! In many cases the sellers did not want to hear what the agent had to say since it probably had to do with adjusting the price to current market conditions or investing time and/or money into the property, to improve the condition, to make it more appealing to a buyer. Selling a house is not magical. To be successful, a seller has to be able to see their property for what it is, or to be able to put themselves in the buyers shoes and see it as a buyer sees it.

There are two things that determine if a house sells. All other reasons are a function of these two things. They are Price and Condition! Sellers need to realize that Price and Condition go hand in hand.

The condition of the property will determine what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Today's buyers are savvy. They do a lot of research before beginning their search. They are somewhat familiar with what they expect in a property. Today, thanks to competition for buyers, sellers have to be more willing to spruce up their homes, to make them appealing. The farther away from move-in condition the property is, the longer it takes to sell. Unless...the price is adjusted accordingly.

Buyers can and often do change some of their expectations as they search for the right property. But rarely will they change their basic expectations. If they want a home in move-in condition, it had better be. If they want to rehab or update the home themselves, the buyer knows what they want and can spend, total, for the property and neccesary work. If a home is in pristine condition, it appeals to more buyers, the less pristine it is, less potential buyers, hence the longer time to sale.

Some sellers think that location will trump price or condition. This is not so. Location is a function of price. While a property is priced according to where it is, desirable location does not make up for less than average property condition. It should be average to above average condition, for that area, to bring in maximum price. Sellers are competing against other properties in that same location. A buyer will buy a property in an area they originally did not consider, if the price is right. They will not buy a property in the desired location if the price is not right.

Houses that have not sold are either priced too high for their market, or their condition. In this case, the seller has several options; adjust the price or improve the property. The original listing agent wants to sell the house as much as the seller does since once they take the listing, they have begun to invest in that property with their own time and money. It is likely that the listing agent has discussed the price, condition or market area with the seller. Often the seller has discounted what the original agent had to say and blames the lack of sale on that agent, instead of being realistic about the value of the property.

The seller sees this ad which offers to tell sellers why their houses did not sell. They click over to the website, fill out the information screen and get an e-mail with a list of items to do, to prepare a home for sale and often a questionnaire, followed by a call from the agent who placed the ad. The agent is now soliciting them to list. If the seller does not realize or possible recognize that the information received, is information that they already have, through their original agent, they often list with the new agent. They assume that the agent promising them this information is more knowledgable and capable to sell their home.

What these seller need to understand is that it's all very simple, the time it takes to sell a property is determined by Price and Condition!