YOUR HOUSE DIDN’T SELL?

You’re in a bad mood. Your house didn’t sell. It’s December, you had it listed with a Realtor for 6 months and it didn’t sell. It’s the holiday season. Buyer traffic died down. Maybe you fired your Realtor. Maybe the listing expired. You’re not sure what to do next. Whatever, in any case, you’re not a happy camper.

What the heck happened? There are almost always TWO [2] main reasons. Let’s not make it complicated:

[1.] PRICE and [2.] CONDITION. Every buyer has a price bracket in mind and it doesn’t matter what that is, small or large. At any price bracket, the buyer will see those homes currently available and if yours is perceived as overpriced contrasted to the others, it will not compare favorably with the others. In fact, if it is too overpriced, it will not even show up in the bucket of homes in that buyers price bracket. So, price speaks for itself—even if your agent didn’t speak that language, or if you did not listen to your agent. Like I said: it’s not complicated. You may not like the message, but the message is clear.

2. CONDITION. I like to use this analogy: I know you can remember meeting someone’s kid for the first time who was a totally rude brat. How long did it take you to get over that impression? The answer is: “years—if ever”. So how do you think it looks to someone if your house is not ready to show? It doesn’t have to have new counters, cabinets, flooring and all the goodies. The next lady of the house may want to change all of that anyway. But it does have to be neat, clean, tidy and uncluttered inside and out. That means different things to different people. No one is perfect. But good Realtors see at least 50 homes a month; they have a pretty good idea.