So, you put your home on the market and it did not sell. Sometimes the market is missed, and the homes do not sell. It is an issue many sellers face.

Your home not selling can be very disappointing as you more than likely hoped your dreams would finally be realized and you could move into the new home you intended to purchase with the proceeds from the sale. Your big move or relocation may be put on hold and you may feel a new sense of urgency consuming you.

You may also be asking yourself, what are the reasons homes don’t sell? Today, we are going to discuss three reasons that may have contributed to why your home did not sell.

Your home is over priced

If you overprice your home and set it at a value not backed by comps, you will have a very difficult time selling. When determining a price, your real estate agent will look at 5 active properties, 5 pending properties and 5 closed sales to get an idea of what your home will sell for in the current market. This method is the industry standard and is proven to produce an accurate market value for a home.

To further explain what properties are compared, active properties are homes that are for sale (your competition), pending properties are soon to be closed, and closed properties are ones that have sold and closed. Closed properties are what the appraisal is based on.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if your home does not appraise for your asking price, you will have to lower the price, even if buyer is willing the pay the full listing price. Lenders will not finance a home that is priced over the appraised value, which will more than likely kill the deal.

You are better off letting your real estate agent let you know how to price you home right the first time.

Condition is not up to par

It’s ok if the home is not in perfect condition, but you do need to factor in the condition of your home when setting the price. If the home is not in perfect condition, needs repairs, or updating, adjust the price when comparing the home to the other properties selected to determine an accurate value.

To assist in ensuring you get the highest price possible and to assist your realtor in determining the market value, be sure to conduct basic maintenance of the home prior to listing. Complete any needed maintenance such as tending to the landscaping and touching up the paint.

Market effectively

This is where the real estate agent comes in. To sell your home for the highest amount possible, you need a significant online presence. 91% of home buyers are shopping for their home online. How your home shows online is very important. If buyers are not wowed online, they will not come out to see the home.  

Some of the tasks that need to be included in your marketing strategy are doing staging optimization, taking high quality photographs, using drone photography, creating videos, and getting it all on line. It needs to be put on popular listing sites like Zillow and Realtor.com as well as the local web sites.

We, The Novak Team, push our listings out to over 150 different sites to ensure our client’s home has a great online presence.

Social media is another important marketing collateral that must be leveraged. When developing a strategy for our listings, we look at the demographic of the buyers that may be interested in the property. Are they a young family? Older retired couple? Military?

The demographic the buyer falls into is what we like to call the client avatar. We then develop are social media strategy utilizing Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest depending on the best way we know of to get the home in front of that avatar. 

Hopefully this explanation sheds a little light on what caused your home not to sell. If you have any questions, the Novak Team is more than ready to assist.