This a common question these days and there are a lot of variables that go into answering this question. Certain markets are cruising right along, and others are not. In both cases there are homes that are not selling and there are certain things to look at. First of all is your home on the local MLS? Having your home on the MLS is a must. Realtors working with buyers use the MLS as the backbone to placing buyers in homes. All of our research is done on the MLS, are commissions set and we need the MLS. Secondly how is your home being marketed? The days of print advertising are dwindling away and the internet is helping 90% of buyers finding their homes. What websites is your house on? The three most important ones are zillow, trulia, and realtors.com. It is essential that your home is on these websites and hopefully many more. How does your house show? Meaning if an agent calls to make an appointment to view the home are you opening the blinds and turning on the lights? Have you moved out as much clutter as possible? Do you keep the lawns mowed, and the beds made? You have to make your home a presentable as possible. Sometime staging is necessary or in other case you might need to store some of your belongings in storage. Finally how is your home priced? Over the past couple of years values have come down and pricing is the most important factor. Your realtor should have a comprehensive market analysis for your property to be sure your home is priced well to start with. So if all of these aspects have been covered and it still has not sold then what? Well you gauge how your home is doing based on what the buyers are saying. It is the realtor’s job to contact each agent and find out the positives and negatives of your home, and ask as many questions to get back to you. Based on what buyers are saying is the direction you can take to help sell your home. Open houses are a good tool to expose your home but really agent showings are the best way to get honest feedback. Now if you are not getting agent showings then you have a problem. If all the aspect have been covered that were just explained then you have to dig a little deeper. Are any other homes selling? What do they have that I don’t? Is my selling commission the same as the others? At this point you need to gather answers to these questions and then try some different things to jump start your home. You can take it off the market and place it on again as a new listing. You can increase your selling commission to selling agents. You can maybe make some cosmetic changes if needed such as carpet or paint. Finally you can reduce the price to make it even more competitive. Remember your home is only worth what a buyer will pay for it! Good Luck!
by Dan Gamache
