The housing market is faring much better than it was a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean every home sells for top dollar or for that matter, sells at all.
So, if your "for sale" sign has been sitting on your front lawn a lot longer than you expected, you might be wondering how to sell your home that didn’t sell when you thought it would.
As a best practice, it ideal to consult your real estate agent, assuming that you’ve hired one to help you with the sale. That said, you may also want to consider the following suggestions to get your home sold.
Lower the price
As obvious as it may sound, it’s still a legitimate piece of advise. In many cases, price is still the problem for homes that stay on the market.
A lot of seller price the home based upon what they need or want and not on what the market will bear. As such, they miss the market and end up staying listed, without selling, for an extended period of time.
As well, especially in markets where there is low inventory and homes are selling quickly, sellers try to capture “lightning in a bottle” by pricing their home higher than market value.
Unfortunately, even in crazy-good markets, poorly priced homes fail to sell.
If you are considering a price reduction, the price should be reduced a minimum of 2 percent all at one time. One large price reduction is always better than lowering the price in small increments.
Scrub your house
Hopefully you got great advice and this is the first thing you did before you listed your home. It might have been, but there’s a chance that you may not have cleaned as thoroughly as you thought you did.
Cleaning your home, decluttering it, doing a little painting, packing ahead of time and even doing some minor landscaping can go a long way in making your house look awesome. An ancillary benefit to this is that your home will often look larger and more spacious when you do this.
It’s a low-cost, high-impact strategy that can pay great dividends in getting your home sold.
One area you may want to pay special attention to is the entrance to your home. It’s the first thing people see when they drive up to your house. Having great curb appeal and making your home shine from the first time someone sees your home can mean the difference between a sale and someone deciding not to see your home at all.
If you can’t change people, change people
The honeymoon period with your real estate agent just might be over.
If you’re at the point where your agent seems to not have time for you or your home seems to have been on the market for an eternity and hasn’t sold, it might be time to change agents.
You need to pick an agent who is not only committed to providing great service, but also someone who is an expert and who is willing to invest their time, energy and money to marketing your home for all its worth and getting it sold for top dollar.
Historically, this is not going to be the best-known discount broker in your area. It’s going to be a full-service agent who knows what it takes to get the job done and then makes it happen. A well-marketed home takes the right budget and some legitimate know how an a full-service agent is usually the best solution for that.
Should you decide to make a switch, take the time to do it right by ending your contract legally. You don’t want there to be an issue with your soon-to-be-former agent and your new agent.
Take care of any loose ends
Buyers want your home to look good and be in good shape. If they walk in and see that things aren’t working or are in disrepair, it can almost be a total and immediate turn off.
If something is broken, fix it. If it needs to be replaced, replace it. Not only will the cost be less if you do it, but also it will help you fetch a much higher price for your home and get it sol faster.
Professional photographs please
The first time a prospective buyer sees your home these days is when they see it on the Internet. That means the pictures of your home have to tell the right story and the only way they can do that is if your home is in tip top shape and there are professional pictures taken of it.
Be sure that your home looks amazing, that some lights are turned on and that it’s staged to look immaculate. The better job you do here, the better the photographs will look.
The most important thing, however, is that you scrutinize your photos and make sure they look amazing before they hit the Internet. That means you’re looking for no junk in the house, toilet seats put down, beds are made, pictures are straight, etc. Excellence is in the details and it’s worth it for you to take 10 to 15 minutes to make sure the photos of your house are incredible.
Just because your home hasn’t sold, doesn’t mean it won’t sell and even sell for top dollar.
Take the time to employ the strategies I’ve recommended here and you’ll see some amazing results for yourself.