Why is my House not Selling?

Do you feel your house been on the market for too long? Whether you are a fsbo or you are working with a realtor if your house is not recieving any offers you should research the houses in your area that are.

The most common reason that your home may not be selling is the fact that it may be overpriced. Even if your home is the nicest home in the area, has more features and much more to offer than every other home and it truly is worth more, it will be hard to get much higher of a value for your home than the highest sale in your area. Banks want to see on paper that your home is worth what you are selling it for (as long as the buyer is obtaining bank financing). This means they utilize the most comparable homes in the area and use these as a basis for an appraisal's final value.

You also need to look at the average time on market for similar properties. This should give you a good idea of the time required to sell a home in your area. If you are using a realtor ask them to prensent you with a numerous options in order to make your home sell faster.

Researching other home sales in the area is key. If your home is overpriced, realtors may be using your home as an example to sell others homes.

If your house is overpriced potential buyers may feel embarassed to submit an offer since it will be significantly lower than what you are asking.

Your house may not be selling because there are too many homes for sale. For example, if there are 4,000 homes for sale in your city and 1,000 sold last month, there is 4 months worth of inventory. In other words, at the current rate of sales, it would take 4 months to sell all of the homes in your city.
In that scenario, on avereage it should take your home 2 months to sell. And that is also assuming that all of the homes are priced correctly.

Your home may not have the same curb appeal as some of the other similar homes in your neighborhood do. It may help sell your home faster, if you get an exterior paint job done or do some more landscaping. The costs of doing these things will be offset by the fact that it may help to sell your home faster.

If you are getting traffic but no interest, consider "prepping" your home for sale visually. Ensure that there is NO clutter and that everything is absolutely spotless. Rent a storage unit if you just have too much stuff in your home. Repaint any soiled or worn areas. Clean the carpets, dust the blinds, etc. Be sure the exterior is clean and bright, landscaping is trimmed and healthy, etc.

If your home has been listed for longer than usual, consider offering potential buyers an incentive. A proven way is to offer to pay for all or part of the settlement costs the buyer incurs.

Paying for all or part of the buyer's settlement costs is called a sellers concession. Basically the way it works is that you the seller agree to a purchase price with the buyer. The buyer (with the help of a mortgage professional) must then have the appraisal come in for a bit higher to cover the costs your are paying for. This becomes the purchase price on the sales contract. At the closing, you walk away with the exact price you agreed to originally and the overage goes towards the buyers closing costs. No money ever comes out of your pocket directly.

If your home is not selling you should consider hiring a staging company. A staging company can furnish and decorate the home in such a manner to make it attractive to home buyers. Reduce the clutter in your home and consider repainting.

Properties with significant amounts of deferred maintenance are often difficult to market and sell as fast as properties which are well maintained.

Market conditions today are quite different than those of a few years ago when every home sold in 3 days with no waiting or marketing time.

Another way to make your home a more attractive to more potential buyers is to offer seller concessions to help buy down the sellers interest rate. This can help them purchase more home or make your home a more financially sound investment.

» DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this article on 'Why is my House not Selling?' is a collection of contributions by licensed mortgage professionals and is not the opinion of Broker Outpost LLC. Always consult a licensed professional before applying for a mortgage.