Looking to Sell?

You had hoped your house would sell quickly.  Some houses do.  In fact, the majority of houses sell during the initial listing time agreed to by most sellers and agents – usually 90 days.  However, in some tough markets, one third to half the listings expire unsold.  Your home likely didn’t sell because of these four reasons: price, communication, marketing, and condition.

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.  Again, the market data never lies!  The Tony English Group Realty will get the most recent sold prices of comparable homes.

  • Is your home priced right?
  • Are your terms and incentives competitive?
  • Have market conditions changed since you originally put your house on the market?
  • Have interest rates changed?
  • Did you consider the psychology of pricing right?

Since price is important to both sellers and buyers, here are some things you can do to expedite the sale of your home:

  • Obtain a CMA, Comparative Market Analysis, from your agent.
  • If no comparable properties have sold lately, have your home appraised by a professional. This will assure you of top dollar and encourage buyers to make realistic offers.
  • Set your price with supporting data that will make sense to buyers.
  • Don’t set your selling price based on how much you need to get out of the house because of how much you put into it, or how much you need to make the next purchase.
  • Have your home inspected and make required repairs. This will eliminate reasons for buyers to offer a lesser price.
  • Offering a home warranty will eliminate a buyer’s fear of anticipated repairs.
  • Don’t hesitate to revise your price downward if you attract no serious buyers within the first 2 weeks.

Everyone Wins When the Property Is Priced Right!

  • Sellers gain prospects for homes priced within their range.
  • Real Estate Agents gain inventory to show to their clients.
  • Sellers and Agents gain prospects that are serious and less likely to lowball on price, unwilling to risk losing out on a well-priced home.
  • Buyers get a home that’s a great value because they are buying at the right price...a price with room for future financial growth.

COMMUNICATION

Teamwork between seller and agent is essential to adjusting the marketing plan along the way.

  • What did prospects say about price and condition?
  • What feedback did other agents offer?
  • Was your home easy for agents to show? Did you permit your listing agent to use a lockbox and a “for sale” sign?
  • Did you impose unrealistic restrictions on showing your home, causing agents to overlook the listing?
  • Did you and your agent maintain open and frequent communication?
  • Did you receive regular status reports from your agent, or were you left to wonder?
  • Did you and your agent return phone calls promptly?
  • Were there any offers on your property, and did your agent submit these to you in a timely manner?
  • Did your agent listen to your needs and wants?
  • Did your agent give you the facts you needed to make well-informed decisions affecting the sale of your property?

Exceptional communication skills, expertise, experience, marketing skills and knowledge of your marketplace are essential attributes to look for in an agent.

From the time you hire your agent until the time you sit down at the closing, you need to rely on your real estate professional for answers, services, and reassurance. You and your agent need to maintain open lines of communication.

MARKETING

Exposure, exposure, exposure.  It’s the name of the game. Advertising doesn’t sell houses.  Agents do.  Your secret to success is a skillful agent and marketing plan that presents your home to the largest area of prospective buyers.

Let’s examine the activity at your home during the time it was for sale.

  • Few or no showings usually indicate an ineffective marketing plan.
  • Poor marketing and advertising result in no buyer activity and no sale.
  • Many showings and no sale indicate either pricing or condition problems.

If your home is priced higher than comparable properties or is in poor condition, the listing will expire.  Avoid this scenario by asking your agent:

  • How he plans to attract buyers?
  • Who will the likely buyers be?
  • What promotional activities will attract these buyers?
  • What is his average sale time?
  • What is his asking price to sale price ratio?
  • How many of his listings expire?
  • Familiarity, knowledge and experience with your marketplace?

So, now that your listing expired, let’s take a look at the marketing strategies used by your previous listing agent. The answers to the following questions will give you some clues as to what happened, and help you avoid the frustration you’re now experiencing.

Did your agent:

  • Use direct mail? What type and how often?
  • Advertise and hold agents/brokers and buyers open houses?
  • Have your property listed on his or her company’s website?
  • Post a virtual tour and/or professional done photos of your property on the website?
  • Use any other Internet marketing?
  • Do electronic mailings of some kind?
  • Make available a 24-hour a day voice-interactive response to provide continuous information on your property?
  • Place colorful flyers or brochures describing your home next to the “for sale” sign?
  • Introduce other unique marketing techniques that might have been appropriate for your particular property?

What response resulted from your agent’s marketing?  If your agent incorporated these strategies and more in his marketing efforts, chances are that marketing was not the culprit. Remember the four major reasons that cause a listing to expire. You need to consider that it could be one of the other three: pricing, communication (including the ability for buyers to access the property) or the condition of the property.  Or did your previous agent try to squeak by with the bare minimum, just placing your home in the Multiple Listings Service?

CONDITION

Do you keep your home in showroom condition; depersonalize it so buyers can see themselves at home; remove pets from premises?

A house in like-new condition sells fastest and gets the best price because it outshines the competition.

  • Curb Appeal – Were buyers turned off before even seeing the inside of your home? If your front and side yards were overgrown, neglected and in shambles, and outdoor fixtures dirty, you probably lost them even though you had a delightful and spotless interior.
  • Creaks and Squeaks – Screen doors swinging off their hinges, broken and dirty windows, shaky staircase railings, chipped porcelain sinks in kitchens and bathrooms, rusty spots from leaky faucets—all these things count a lot when buyers compare other properties to yours.
  • Smart Investment – A little elbow grease, some paint and inexpensive new carpeting could make your home attractive to some lucky buyer.
  • Fibber McGee’s Closet – A pack rat’s nest will not attract a full price buyer. Since you’re planning on moving soon, why not get a headstart? Organize, sort, throw away, donate...be absolutely brutal when it comes to clutter. Removing clutter will make your house look brighter and larger.
  • How about a Little Feng Shui? – Make it impossible for buyers to pass up the opportunity of living in your home. Turn your home into a neutral canvas where they can imagine their furnishings and their future. Light, bright and cheery! How about a little mood music?

 A Final Word on the Subject – Pride of Ownership pays off in a big way!

Selling your home is important to you! Let’s examine your responsibilities:

  • All needed repairs, including painting, should be made prior to relisting your home.
  • Cosmetic improvements: repair or replace anything that’s broken, old, or dirty.
  • Clean everything, get rid of clutter, pick up and put away personal items, clothes, toys.
  • This is delicate...but please rid your home of pet and cooking odors.
  • Your home should be well lighted when shown.
  • Maintain your home in showroom condition until it sells!

We’re all familiar with the real estate mantra “location, location, location.” Equally important is “presentation, presentation, presentation.” Presentation is a valuable selling tool; do not  underestimate its power. The money you spend on the front end of your sale will come back to you many fold in your sale price.  The first impression you create will either sell or not sell your home.

WHAT NOW?

You now know a lot about what helps a house sell, and are in a better position this time around.  There is a tremendous amount of information for the homeowner to grasp in order to sell quickly and at top dollar.

You should be aware that your home now shows on the Multiple Listing Service as EXPIRED. You have probably been receiving numerous calls from agents asking for the listing and claiming that they can sell it if you list with them.  If these agents are telling you that they can do a better job than your previous agent, they may be right. They may also be telling you that your price was too high, and again, they may be right, but there could be other reasons.  Inadequate marketing could be one of the other reasons.

Keep these facts in mind:

  • Your home is competing with many others.
  • Ads in the newspaper don’t work the way they used to.
  • People aren’t just driving around from street to street looking for available properties.
  • Today, according to statistics, 88% of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home.
  • Your next agent must be e-mail and Internet marketing savvy.

No matter what you intend to do, before you re-list, please call The Tony English Group for an interview. We will discuss how to get your home sold, no obligation, just an interview. You may reach us at 317-873-0614. Go ahead and call now.  We would be honored to work with you and discuss how we can clean up the mess your last real estate agent left you.