|
CENTURY
21 Tahoe North, Realtors - Lake Tahoe Property
www.TahoeNorthRealEstate.com
The
Basics - Selling Your Home
6 reasons your home isn't selling
So, you're in agony because your home has languished on the market
week after week. Here are some culprits that may be keeping buyers
away in droves.
By Bankrate.com
Has your lawn grown up around that "For Sale"
sign? Have the wasps moved into the lock box on your front door?
Did you just receive an invitation to your real estate agent's retirement
party?
If so, chances are your home sale fizzled.
Here are the six most-common reasons why homes don't
sell and what you can do about it.
Your home is overpriced
Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, "There's
a buyer for every home." But they often leave off the qualifier:
"at the buyer's price."
The fact is that buyers, not sellers, ultimately
determine the market value of a home. You can ask for the moon and
set your listing price well above comparable properties in your
neighborhood, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller,
to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth.
Overpricing is the most common reason homes don't
sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a
process that often works against you. Here's why:
Most real estate agents, and hence most qualified
buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced
by as little as 5%, it will be duly noted and interest in your property
will wane, especially if you show no intention of coming off your
asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have
qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you
manage to find a buyer at your inflated asking price, the property
may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart.
Your real estate agent may have approved or even
suggested the inflated asking price to secure your listing. Conversely,
other agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help
sell their own listings ("Here's what they are asking. Now
would you like to take a second look at that first house I showed
you?")
"If you have a house that really should be
priced at $200,000 and you've got it listed at $260,000, you are
trying to compete against homes that really are worth close to $300,000
and all of a sudden your home really is not competing well,"
says Jeri Fisher of Jeri Fisher Real Estate in Missoula, Mont. "You
want to compete with what is available out there among homes similar
to yours."
If your home remains on the market for too long,
agents and buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, perhaps
more serious reasons why it isn't selling.
"It becomes shopworn, the same as a jacket
hanging in the store week after week," says Fisher. "People
are aware that it has been on the market a long time and agents
stop showing it."
Your home doesn't 'show' well
Your home is competing against shiny new houses in those pristine
subdivisions out in the suburbs with their attractive prices, incentives
and community amenities.
Face it: Even the best old house needs a little
makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer.
The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic
and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a few attractive
window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila!
The place may look good enough to reconsider.
A good real estate agent can advise you on where
your time and money are best spent.
"Price and condition are two things that the
seller can do something about," says Fisher. "I always
give people my 'honey-do' list. I think paint is probably a seller's
best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh.
If it's time to paint, it's time to paint. It's the best return
on investment."
You're in a bad location
Nothing has a greater effect on your home's value than its location.
Your humble abode might be worth a king's ransom were it located
in Palm Beach, Aspen or San Francisco. It might even jump thousands
in value just two streets over in the next (and far superior) school
district.
"If you're in one of the higher-ranked schools
around here, you're going to add $50,000 to $100,000 to the price
of the same house," says Lenn Harley, a broker with Homefinders.com
Inc. in Maryland and Virginia.
The point is, location rules in real estate.
If your home's location is less than desirable,
your options are somewhat limited. A good real estate agent will
do his best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the
negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off
offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise.
The best way to compensate for a poor location is
to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such
as seller financing or a lease option with rent credit.
You have a lousy listing agent
Yep, they exist: Real estate agents who mislead, misfire and misbehave.
Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time, money
and the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7.
The agent from hell will allow you to overprice
your home ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with
me!"), not market it properly, fail to screen for qualified
buyers, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell
their own listing, they don't have to split the commission) and
keep you totally in the dark throughout the process.
What's more, if your agent is abrasive, arrogant
or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the
hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers.
You are battling competition or market conditions
We've all heard the terms "buyer's market" and "seller's
market." In real estate, market conditions are affected by
any number of external forces, some of them predictable (the weather,
sort of), some of them unpredictable (the local economy, interest
rates, public optimism or pessimism).
In a "hot" or seller's market, homes go
fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition
for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price
in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered
more than your listing price.
But in a "flat," "cold" or buyer's
market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can
find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated
(i.e., paying on two mortgages).
If you're trying to sell in a flat market, you're
not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but
against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for
less than top dollar, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings
once again in your favor.
You have ineffective marketing
Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing
with the local multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open
house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer.
Today's top performers launch a multilevel marketing
plan that includes listing tours for area agents, newspaper and
even TV ads, weekend open houses, listing fliers and placements
in local real estate publications.
Computers and the Internet also have changed the
face of real estate. According to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®,
today more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for
house hunting. The best real estate agents are computer-savvy. They
have your listing in color on their laptops to show clients and
communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working
with out-of-town buyers.
Suffice it to say that if your real estate agent
isn't listing your home online through the company Web site as well
as with the local MLS, you may not be getting the exposure necessary
to find a buyer.
"There are those who just put the listing in
the multiple and pray it will sell and those that put a lot of effort
into marketing their listings," says Fisher. "Unfortunately,
with this weird system of compensation we have, they all get paid
the same, whether they know nothing or have many years of experience."
1-800-892-8821
CENTURY 21 Tahoe North, Realtors
would love to hear from you!
We Specialize in Lake Tahoe Property - Lake Tahoe Property Sales!!
5249
North Lake Blvd., P.O. Box 1178
Carnelian Bay, California 96140
Phone: 530-546-8224
Fax: 530-546-3615
Email:
www.tahoenorthrealestate.com
|
