Do You Eat Monkey Brains? or The Top 5 Reasons Your House Is Not Selling
March 2, 2008
Ok Mr. & Mrs. Homeowner. Your house is on the market and has been for quite some time. You hired a real estate agent. You have held the open houses. You have had the home staged for optimum presentation. But it still will not sell. What’s the problem?
Well we have done the research for you and here are the Top 5 Reasons Your House Is Not Selling:
1. You Are Overpriced
The most famous words in real estate are Location, Location, Location. That may have been true some time back but in a Buyer’s eyes, the 3 most important words are Price, Price, Price. It may be hard to believe that you are overpriced but you are.
What you paid for your home is entirely irrelevant. Let’s talk basic economics. The Law of Supply and Demand most assuredly applies here. Don’t listen to any agent, advisor, friend, neighbor or family member who tells you otherwise. Learn and understand this basic fundamental of economics.
Simply put, the more supply there is of a product, the less the price must be. If there are a lot of houses available for Buyer’s to purchase, then you must be competitive in price.
Don’t let your home become an emotional albatross. Drop the price in line with similar, comparable homes and then drop it further to be the most appealing product. You know..actually have a sale!
When retailers have a sale, they don’t drop their prices just to be at the same price, they drop them further because they are having a sale and they are trying to get people to actually buy.
If you hire a Realtor, make sure you can get out of the listing agreement if they do not perform. Tie some kind of performance clause in their contract that gets them to price the property correctly at the outset.
Don’t rely on fancy CMA presentations to set your price. Most agents of course will tell you they can get you a very good price. They will tell you fanciful stats from the National Association of Realtors and their expert market analysis. Fine, then tell them to back it up!
Hey Mr. Super Realtor, for every 1 percent I drop the List Price, you agree to drop your commission the same amount. that will either get them to price the home correctly or you’ll scare off an agent that just wanted to tie you up.
Value is based upon what someone is willing to pay! Banks are tightening their standards and you had better be spot on in your pricing or your home will never sell.
2. You Are Not Truly Motivated
If you don’t NEED to sell then take your home off the market for now. Every Buyer thinks it’s Seller desperation time right now and if you don’t want to be lumped into the financially distressed, super motivated, “I’ll take anything” Seller category then take your home off of the market. If you want top dollar, now is not the time to be selling.
3. Nobody Knows It’s For Sale
Your property is not being marketed correctly. Listen up…an MLS listing, a yard sign and an open house is not marketing. While you may get some calls from Craigslist you need to be doing a lot more. Ask yourself a few questions.
When you go to the store, why are you buying the items you are putting in your shopping cart? When you go out to eat, how did you find out about that restaurant? When you go out to the movies, how did you know it was playing? Well if you and / or your agent are not executing a comprehensive marketing campaign, how do you expect anyone to know your home is for sale? You’re paying an agent big money. Get your money’s worth or fire him!
They are supposed to be marketing your home. If they aren’t, then get rid of them. Most agents think the sale is complete when they get you to list the home with them. Most agents are taught to get the listing and let someone else find the Buyer. So they put your home on the MLS and hopefully somebody else will have a Buyer in tow.
Find a professional agent who REALLY knows how to market your home. . There are some really good agents out there. However you have to know what questions to ask in order to find the right one.
Can’t find one..let us know and we’ll recommend someone in your area.
4.You’re Hung Up On What You Did To Improve The Property
So you remodeled your bathroom and kitchen and you think that matters. Well it might look nice but just as with everything else in this economy, it isn’t worth all that much either. In fact you will be lucky if you can expect to recoup even half of what you spent.
Have you seen the latest Cost vs. Value Report. it’s quite sobering to read. While you may have splurged and installed the finest granite counter-top or jacuzzi tub, right now it does not mean all that much. Sorry.
5. Neither You Nor Your Agent Understands Who Your Buyer Is
There are Buyers out there and they are indeed looking to buy now. But not every Buyer is right for your home…and believe it or not, your house is not right for every Buyer. Back to the restaurant analogy above, I hear monkey brains are a delicacy somewhere, but I don’t care. I am never putting monkey brains in my mouth. Not going to happen.
Marketing wasted on selling me monkey brains is never going to see any return. Just as there are some people that will NEVER buy your house. You and or your agent need to determine through demographic analysis who your target market is and concentrate your marketing efforts there. Just like the monkey brains salesman does.
As for Location, Location, Location….don’t worry about your location if you have the house priced correctly. There is the opportunistic Buyer out there that will buy just about anything if he can cash flow it. (i.e. Rent it out for a profit).
You must realize that you are looking to sell in an extremely competitive market right now. Everyone, it seems is looking to sell their home. You are competing with people who have to move their piece of the real estate pie. Give them a reason to buy your house…and by all means, if you don’t need to sell take it off of the market and wait for the real estate market to turn around.
Unfortunately you can not have it both ways.
[…] finished the day with Barry C’s recent blog post titled,”Do You Eat Monkey Brains? or The Top 5 Reasons Your House Is Not Selling“. Barry and I talk about the 5 reasons in detail on this episode. Also, Barry C gives his […]
I’m speechless. Every seller should read this and I’m going to do my best to put it in front of them. I might need some back up from Jack Nicholson in Top Gun. “You can’t handle the truth!”
Actually, Jeff, it was in A Few Good Men that Nicholson gave his command performance and that famous line.
“Your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.” Jester in Top Gun
“Okay Mav, do some of that blog stuff”. What Goose should have said in Top Gun
Thanks for the movie lesson. I would use a quote from Top Gun or A Few Good Men explaining how I’m an idiot but I’m sure someone will come up with a good one for me.
No..they can’t handle the truth is right…Seller’s need a cold hard dose of reality!
AMEN!!!…..Barry C this hits the heart of what “real” agents have been trying to tell their Sellers all along!!
I usually consult a seller and tell them if they dont “need” to sell they probably shouldn’t. While that may be talking me out of a listing, it is the truth most of the time.
Not to mention most of the time they won’t be willing to price it right from the beginning anyway and I won’t take an overpriced listing…why waste good effort and $$ out of my pocket to just disappoint them when it doesn’t sell after 6 months. Who is that helping??
The bottom line is if you, as an agent, are allowing your Seller to believe his home is worth more than it can sell for, you either don’t know what “Competitive Pricing” is, or you are a fool. Eitehr way you hash it out the home doesn’t sell and everyone, especially the seller, loses $$…Not my idea of a business plan…unless it’s a non-profit…
Good job!!