Have you ever wondered why your house is not selling? Here are some key factors to help you with your sale journey.
House prices in and around Oxford are among the highest in the UK. Therefore, selling your home in this part of the country carries high-income prospects for homeowners. However, the modern dynamics surrounding home sales especially during the coronavirus pandemic require extra caution. If you have been looking to make a sale and move to another home, it is vital now more than ever to present your house in the best light. So, what could make your home remain on the market for ages while another homeowner sells theirs within a month? In this post, we examine 10 leading reasons some homes seem to stay on the market forever plus their solutions. Read on to discover more and sell your home faster.
UNAPPEALING APPEARANCES
Let us face the facts. We are all visual creatures who can either be turned on or off by what we see. Therefore, first impressions matter very much when it comes to selling your home. Prospective buyers will likely see your house either online first before arranging your viewing. If your house fails to meet the visual appeal expectations online, you are never going to get any viewings. Even when would-be-buyers turn up for a viewing, you need to make sure they are met with a similar or better standard than in the advertising photos.
Therefore, it’s prudent to make the exterior look attractive because if the outside attracts them, they’ll have more reasons to view and fall in love with the inside.
POOR ADVERTISING PHOTOS
An adage says that a good picture speaks louder than a thousand words. This maxim is true and applies to home selling. Also, NAR research says that 44% of buyers shop for houses online and 89% of them find photos useful tools that attract them to a given listed home. So, what do these figures tell us? The answer is simple: nobody will come to your home unless they see it somewhere. Moreover, if they see its shoddy photos, they are most likely to let it go and zero in on that house with appealing photographic images.
So, are you still wondering why your house is not selling? Deal with its image quality. Here are a few valuable solutions to this problem:
- Don’t allow your agent to take shoddy photos of your house
- Prepare your home by ‘staging’ it. This means making it look it’s very best to attract prospective buyers
- Do not take the photos yourself but enlist the help of a professional real estate photographer
POOR STAGING
Poor staging is another reason your home might take longer to sell. In fact, staged homes sell 87% faster than un-staged ones. Moreover, they fetch 17% more money than un-staged homes. When you do not stage your home properly, it looks smaller than it is, dark, and cluttered. So, how do you fix this mess? Here are a few practical recommendations to help you stage your home effectively.
- Fix all the little things that distract viewers
- Make all necessary repairs, those little things which do not cost a lot
- Refinish floors
- If possible, hire a professional stager or use the internet for inspiration
- A bit of decoration will make the walls look fresher
- Declutter the house and get rid of anything that is just lying around
BAD MARKET TIMING
Selling is about timing, not just time. Some homeowners fail to sell their homes because their timing is wrong. For instance, trying to sell your house at Christmas is never really going to work. Why? Because most people are busy enjoying themselves and relaxing. Therefore, they do not have the morale and time to engage themselves with the hassle of moving to a new house.
Traditionally early March to late June are the perfect time to put your house on the market with houses in some areas selling nearly 20 times faster.
DEALING WITH THE WRONG AGENT
Dealing with the wrong agent could also cost you a home sale because agents differ in skill, proficiency, and speed of selling property. Moreover, if you go for the wrong agent, they might not advise you effectively on what else to do to sell your home faster. Also, some agents specialise in single-family homes thus, they may not be the best partners when you are not selling this kind of a home. Worse still, dealing with the wrong agent could land you a raw deal where the agent might sell the home for less than its market value. Therefore, if you want to get the right agent for your home in Oxford, do the following:
- Use estate agent comparison tools to get more details regarding their success rate, expertise, experience, and fees
- Check out your local newspaper and property magazines to know the leading agents and see how many homes for sale they have listed from your area
- Keep an eye for ‘sold’ boards outside houses and the more you see from an agent means they must be doing something right
EXORBITANT ASKING PRICE
Well, it is great to get maximum cash from your home sale. However, if you expect that selling your home alone must buy you a bank, then reconsider. The reason is that modern buyers are savvy and do enough window shopping before settling for a given property. Therefore, pricing your home as if it were an ivory castle in paradise will surely cost you a sale. It is also worth noting that the average selling price of houses is usually 5% lesser. Therefore, most buyers would expect you to sell at that price only. So, to avoid this trap, do the following:
- Research your local property portals to find the going prices of similar homes
- Set the right price from the beginning to avoid massive price reductions after the property overstays on the market. If you do this, buyers will avoid it because they usually suspect something is wrong with the house
According to Zoopla, houses in Oxford and St Helens took on average between 61 and 62 days longer to sell than local homes that were realistically priced.
POOR ADVERTISING
Also, your home could be lying on the market for longer because your advertising efforts are defective. It is necessary to use the best advertising methods for your property. Otherwise, poor, and inadequate advertising could cost you a sale and potentially cause you to lose the house of your dreams.
NOT GETTING FEEDBACK
It isn’t enough to enlist an agent to sell your home for you. It is also necessary to get timely feedback on the selling process. You should ensure that your agent briefs you on what all potential buyers say and feel about the property. For instance, if they feel it is overpriced or you should make some adjustments before selling, you would be better placed to respond accordingly.
PROPERTY NEEDS UPDATING
Did you know that simple renovations by a reputable builder in Oxford like Lynch Brother Homes could help you sell your home faster? Many homeowners ignore this fact and delay their homes’ sale. Potential buyers are most likely to turn away from homes with leaking roofs, damaged floors, or poor ventilation. Therefore, be proactive and make necessary repairs before letting buyers view it.
Some homes just look tired or need updating but the asking price is not reflective of the money a new owner would need to put into the home. Fix all the little things that you can, and this could make a big difference to how long you stay on the market.
YOU MARKETED IT IN THE WRONG PLACES
Lastly, your home could stay on the market if you market it in the wrong place. In this tech-driven age, never depend on the traditional glossy real estate journals alone to advertise your house. Remember, 44% of tech-savvy buyers start their search online while a mere 17% start their search by calling agents. So, know where the potential buyers “hang” and follow them there.
CLOSING REMARKS
Now you have a useful understanding of why your house is not selling as fast as it should, or you want. The ball is now in your court to follow the insights we shared in this post to enable you to sell your home fast. If you feel you could do more to make your house attractive to buyers such as a new coat of paint or some landscaping and remedial works, Lynch Brother Homes are your trusted Builder in Oxford and are always happy to help!
