What Went Wrong?
Your REALTOR made a promise to you that your property would sell and it didn’t. Who’s fault is it? Investigating the reason why the home didn’t sell is the first step to understanding who is at fault.
Your home likely didn’t sell because of these three reasons: price, communication, and marketing. It’s almost certain that your listing expired as a combination of these three things. Starting with lack of communication.
Lack of Communication
This is huge, it’s the foundational reason why your REALTOR didn’t get your home sold. All other reasons including price may point back to lack of communication.
It’s your realtor’s job to keep you informed and relay the facts. The factual data on the market never lies. Your Realtor should answer some of the following questions for you:
- How did the showing of my property go?
- What are some of the features that buyers like or dislike?
- What did the comparable properties sell for? How long were they on the market?
- Why aren’t we getting showings?
- What homes on the market compete with our home?
- What types of homes are selling on the market right now?
When your agent keeps you constantly informed, a request for a price reduction won’t come as a surprise. You will know why the price reduction is necessary and what you can do to make your home more appealling.
Price
Price is the single most important factor when selling your home. No matter the skill or marketing expertise of an agent, your home will not sell if it is overpriced. Your target buyer will not see your home, and the “days on the market” of your listing is ticking away.
After a home has been on the market for a long time you will receive lower offers, a decrease in showings, and an overall skepticism towards your home. People will wonder why your home hasn’t sold in 180 days? Is there something wrong with it? A real estate agent will wonder the same thing, and be less likely to show it to their buyers.
Price it right and it will sell within 90 days. But pricing it right is heavily dependent on receiving the correct facts from your Realtor.
Again, the market data never lies! Get the most recent sold prices of comparable homes. Evaluate what’s on the market and how your home sizes up next to it. This should give you a ballpark figure.
If you want a quick sale you’ll need to set your price at market value and make it stand out! If it doesn’t stand out you’ll have to lower the price to make it more appealing. Once you have the facts straight and are willing to get your home sold, get with an agent with proper marketing.
Marketing
Exposure, exposure, exposure. It’s the name of the game.
84% off all buyers find their home on the internet. How is your agent marketing your home online?
Review the marketing plan of your agent and determine what is working and what isn’t. If you are getting a lot of showings but no offers, it’s time to think about a price reduction or make those changes your Realtor suggested.
Making it Work Next Time
Interview agents and never base the agent you pick on the price they tell you. This may be the reason why your listing expired in the first place. Don’t let the agent tell you what you want to hear so that they get the listing.
Make sure to get a comparable market analysis (CMA) of your property from a few Realtors. These numbers will tell you the price your home will likely sell, and the amount of time it will be on the market. Watch out for agents that practice, “buying the listing.”
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The single biggest thing that bothered us about our Realtor was the lack of communication. You hit the nail on the head with that one! We didn’t have a clue what was going on with the sale of our home.
When she called us to tell us we needed to reduce the price, we were thinking, “duh… we haven’t had any interest in 3 months.”