In our monthly rental market reports, we continue to see a striking trend in Austin: sellers taking their home off the market at increasing rates each month. While there are many reasons your home doesn’t sell, we find there are really three umbrella reasons why: the home’s physical defects, a buyer’s shopping experience and letting emotions get in the way. Our Why Your Home Won’t Sell in 2019 series will cover all of these reasons in detail.
A house is more than just a structure, it’s a home for your family. So it’s not surprising that there can be a lot of emotions tied to the purchase and sale of it. That said, one of the most important functions of your real estate agent is to help you ignore those emotions and make the most of your largest investment. The situations below are some of the most common where we see emotions dictate behavior. Remember that every time this happens it costs you money, so avoid these at all costs.
You Hired an Unqualified Family Member or Friend to Sell Your Home
You may really like someone, but this doesn’t mean that they should sell your home. The real estate business is easy to get in and out of. Everyone knows a friend or family member who has their license, but are they the most qualified to get top dollar for your home? Hiring the wrong agent can cost you thousands. When that much money is on the line, you owe it to yourself to hire someone who can get the most money for you as possible.
You Think It is Still 2015
While you may really, really want there to be a frenzy of buyers in line an hour after your home is listed with 10 offers over asking by the end of the day – that’s not going to happen this year. The market has changed. The market is still a seller’s market, but buyers aren’t jumping at homes that they feel are overpriced. Pricing your home on the high side will only help sell other homes. If you want to sell your home in 2019, take a hard look at the market and honestly evaluate what it’s going to take to get your home sold for top dollar.
You Use Discount Pricing
You may love the feeling you get when you get a great deal at Walmart, but that’s not the smartest way to price a home sale. Buyers use search engines to find homes that fall within their price range. If you price on even numbers, not 99’s and 97’s, you’ll get buyers on both ends of the searches. For example, a home priced at $399,999 only gets buyers searching with a max price to $400,000. Homes priced at $400,000 will get buyers search with a maximum and minimum price of $400,000. And, you’d rather get people looking for a minimum since they can pay more than $400,000 if they really like it.
You Won’t Respond to “Lowball” Offers
Sellers are so often offended by a lowball offer that they won’t even respond. We don’t recommend this practice because many times a lowball offer is simply a buyer’s hail mary pass. They’re willing to pay more, often times much more, once they realize that you won’t give them your house for what they want to pay. When sellers are too offended to negotiate, they lose an opportunity to get what they want. Look at lowball offers as a buyer telling you what they want. Then, go back and tell them what you want. Continue that process until someone stops responding. It could be a complete waste of time. But, you could also sell your house for what you wanted.
Ready to Sell Your Austin Home?
We are too! We’re not in the business of taking listings that don’t sell. We’ll help you prepare your home to meet the market and sell faster and for more money. Our home marketing plan is quite simply the best in the industry. Learn more about it at Austin Home Sellers. Then call us at (512) 827-8323, fill out our Seller Survey or email us at info@11OaksRealty.com to schedule a no obligation consultation.
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