How many reasons or excuses can your rattle off as to why your home didn’t or took an eternity to sell?
Phil Spencer, the likable Pom real estate ‘guru’ says in the trailer of his show, “There’s a thousand reasons why a home doesn’t sell.” Sorry Phil, you’ve overshot the truth by about 997 reasons.
You’ve heard it here ladies and gentlemen, there are actually only THREE, well three and a half, reasons a home or property languishes on the market or frustration gets the better of the sellers and they take it off the market.
Whether you are selling your home privately or through an agent, these are the immutable laws of whether or not you are going to be slapping that SOLD sticker up or, like a beaten favourite, dragging the ‘For Sale’ sign in and using the backside of it to advertise the upcoming school fete.
The best thing about these immutable laws is that they are controlled by one person or group of people – the sellers, the owners of the home or property being sold. Yep – you have total control over these laws and can fix or adjust them at any time. And to make it easy to remember, they all start with the letter ‘P’.
PROMOTION: Reaching and attracting buyers
You can’t sell a secret. Always think of promotion (advertising) like this –
Who is the likely buyer(s) for my home? Where will I find them?
A hint for part one is, they are likely to be just like you were at the time you bought the home, and part two – it’s nearly ALL online baby!
Buyers follow property, not agents and 95{5be8b5650852dcf96a34828ba5a88d9285f6c7439f02c8133f6b05e7d943eaff} of those buyers are searching, researching and shopping online. The advertising resources you need to promote your property are almost identical if you decide to sell your own home or hire the services of an agent.
Always think BIG online as it costs a fraction of print media which now only accounts for less than 5{5be8b5650852dcf96a34828ba5a88d9285f6c7439f02c8133f6b05e7d943eaff} of total buyer enquiry.
PRESENTATION: Impressing buyers
Is the home or property Clean, Uncluttered, Tidy, and Smelling nice? – C.U.T.S.
There is no quicker way to repel a buyer than to present an untidy, cluttered, unloved home. If you don’t show that you love it, the buyer won’t either.
If it doesn’t CUTS it, you are definitely handicapping the chance of a quick, well priced sale.
Inside and out, it needs to look its absolute best.
PORTRAYAL: Attracting and meeting the expectation of buyers
Portrayal is the half a reason – extending on both presentation and promotion.
Do the images (photos) and description match what you have to offer?
Did your 16 year old niece who studied photography at TAFE for three months take six brilliant shots of the birdbath? Is the washing up still on the sink of that ‘Chef’s kitchen’ that you had installed a year ago?
One of the biggest repellents for buyers is too few photos, or poorly taken images. Four is NOT enough and thirty four is too many. The optimum number to show online (where ever buyer looks) is around 12-15 shots.
I strongly recommend hiring pro- property photographers and make sure they don’t ‘overstate’ your home. Buyers hate turning up to what they believe is the Taj Mahal and finding the Taj Mahole. Be honest and accurate with your portrayal.
Do you want to hear the biggest and often the most ignored reason why properties take ages to sell or simply don’t?!
PRICE!: Attracting and providing value for buyers
No matter if a market is hot or cold. If you over price your home or property, based on the informative power of the web, buyers will give your home a wide berth and continue to look for better value amongst your competition. And always remember this – you will always have competition.
This has been proven time and time again. Price can stop a train.
This one law would account for over 90{5be8b5650852dcf96a34828ba5a88d9285f6c7439f02c8133f6b05e7d943eaff} of stagnant or unsold properties.
A lovely client of mine called just a few days ago and asked the $64,000 question, “Craig, why hasn’t my home sold? I haven’t had anyone come to see it?”
We agreed that the other 2.5 laws had been satisfied, however, it was bleedingly obvious that the seller had overshot the runway on price, although she did try to reach for some of Phil Spencer’s imaginary 996.5 reasons why a home doesn’t sell.
She was priced at $640,000 and we agreed that a change to ‘Buyers from $600,000’ might help things along. We made the change. Within 24 hours she had her first genuine enquiry.
That horrible term ‘Drop the Price’ does not need to be used – ever. Adjusting the pricing strategy is what it’s all about. In most cases an adjustment of 2-3{5be8b5650852dcf96a34828ba5a88d9285f6c7439f02c8133f6b05e7d943eaff} and a change of how you express the price is all it takes to get buyers moving.
I have written so much about this very subject, and this hugely important law can have significant impacts on the expectations and psyche of sellers everywhere. For Agent in a Box members, you will find a video on the subject in the members area.
So there you have it, 3.5 reasons why a home or property doesn’t sell. These laws won’t change. Observe them and your next real estate selling experience will be much happier and smoother.
