So, you’ve decided to sell your home. Whether it’s to move out of state, downsize, or move up, selling your home is a big decision. The weeks leading up to the holiday season are when real estate investors pounce on properties, and buyers who want to buy before the holidays often pay more than they would at other times of the year.
The housing market is on fire right now, and home prices are skyrocketing, so it’s no wonder that many homeowners are rushing to sell their homes through a “we buy houses Smyrna GA” (depending on where they live) portal. But just because the housing market is hot right now doesn’t mean that it will remain that way.
There are a host of reasons why your home may not sell. And there are a fair number of other homes that do sell, even in this hot market. From pricing to curb appeal, here are 7 reasons why your home is not selling as it should be.
- Keep in mind that a house is the single largest purchase for many potential buyers. So naturally, they want to make sure they’re getting a great deal. This is especially true if they plan on living on the property for a while. But pricing a house too low can give you the opposite result: it risks scaring off buyers. If they think it’s a bad investment, they’re less likely to make an offer.
Pricing a house too high can also actually be a money-loser since it can result in not receiving as many offers as you would have if you chose a lower price point. That’s why you should find the right pricing for your home. - Whether your home looks good to prospective buyers is a question many sellers ask themselves. No matter how good your real estate agent is, sometimes your home just looks, well, bad.
The last thing you want is potential buyers telling you what’s wrong with your house and then having to fix it all before you can even list the home for sale. Therefore, inspect the exterior of your home, and look for anything Such as windows, doors, siding, etc that needs replacement or repair. You can then look for renovation firms like JD Hostetter & Associates that can make sure the home you’re selling looks its best. - Sometimes, your home isn’t selling because you might be selling it at the wrong time. While it can be very hard to turn down a prospective buyer, you might want to think twice before selling your home simply because you think it’s bad timing. Certain times of the year may be better or worse than others to list your home, depending on how the housing market in your area is behaving.
- You’ve been working hard, cleaning, showing, and prepping your home for listing for months, and then suddenly it hits you-your home isn’t selling. Your listing went on the market, you waited for weeks for showings, and still nothing. So, what gives? Well, buyer’s agents often face issues when showing homes to clients. One of the most common problems is obscured or blocked views.
A 2014 Report by Redfin showed that 80% of home buyers use the internet in their home search and that 62% of buyers learn about the home they want to buy online. You have to enlist your home on a real estate website to ensure potential clients get to see your property. - When thinking about selling your home, it’s important to remember a process that’s typically overlooked: photography. Is it important? Absolutely. Selling a home is tough, and photos that grab a buyer’s attention can go a long way to getting them to show your home. If a photo is unattractive, buyers may have a hard time envisioning what they’ll find if they walk through the door. Sometimes, the photograph may give a wrong impression about the type of your home. Buyers might be looking for a townhouse but, in the photograph, it might be looking as a normal condo (you can know the difference between a home vs townhouse and their demand in the market here). Therefore, it might be essential that you hire a professional real estate photographer to click good photos of your house that you can put up in the house selling portal.
- Sellers want to attract serious buyers. Of course, it is easy to make bad changes in all the excitement of preparing to sell your home. Bad changes can hinder a buyer’s experience, as they then start questioning the decisions made by the homeowner.
Home improvement projects are a great way to update your home, add value, and improve its aesthetics. But not all improvements are the best investments for your home. Some can actually harm its resale value. - Curb appeal is the visual attractiveness of your home to passing buyers. Most people don’t realize that curb appeal is just as important to selling your home as it is to buying a home. A little landscaping work, keeping the driveway clean, adding some outdoor decor or seating, could really boost the curb appeal of your home. You could even upgrade your residential windows, because, if you didn’t know, they do make lot of difference to how the house looks!
When buyers pull up to your house and don’t see a beautiful and welcoming entrance, it creates a wrong first impression and decreases their likelihood of walking inside. Curb appeal should be the first thing you think of when staging and selling your home. A few simple and inexpensive curb appeal improvements can give you a 5% to 15% higher selling price.