EXPIRED: How to Sell a House that Didn't Sell
"...before you put your home back on the
market, take a step back and review your situation..."
4 Important Points that Will Get Your house Sold!
If your home has just come off the market and hasn't sold,
don't be discouraged. The reason it didn't sell may have nothing to do with your
home or the market. In reality, your home may have been one of the more
desirable properties for sale. If your listing has expired and you still want
results, before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and
review your situation.
Q. Where should you begin?
A. Start by making a commitment to do what it takes to
market your house to get it sold. With the right system, the home sale you want
is still well within reach.
Q. Why didn't your home sell?
A. Review your previous selling plan and you'll discover
that an expired listing usually reflects a problem in one or more of these four
major areas:
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Teamwork,
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Pricing,
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Condition of Your Home, and
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Marketing.
1. Teamwork
Your home is a major financial investment, and your relationship
with your Realtor? should be a full partnership where your needs and wishes
are heard, and you receive detailed and dependable feedback on the progress of
your sale. Your agent has a responsibility to source this feedback from the
agents who have shown your home, and to communicate this to you so together you
can make the right decisions about what to do next. How well did this occur the
last time you had your home up for sale?
2. Pricing
Did price work for or against you? The "right"
price depends on market conditions, competition and the condition of your home.
Pricing it too high is as dangerous as pricing it too low. If your home doesn't
compare favorably with others in the price range you've set, you won't be taken
seriously by prospects or agents.
You'll get the facts when you see the statistics!
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To help you establish a realistic selling price for your
home, ask your agent to provide you with an up-to-date competitive market
analysis to give you:
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a review of comparable homes recently sold or currently for
sale,
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an idea of how long other homes have been listed, in order
to calculate an average time in which a home can sell in today's market,
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a review of homes whose listings have expired, to understand
what issues were at play.
Note: There is no mention of how much you paid for
your home or its improvements. Like any other investment, the market value is
determined by what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept.
3. Condition of Your Home
Show Case Quality!
Is your house someone else's idea of a dream home? When buyers
enter are they inspired? Do they think, "I love this house!" Remember,
the decision to buy a home is based on emotion, not logic.
A house in move-in condition invites a sale. You need to
consider:
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fixing all the little squeaks and cracks
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keeping it clean for all showings
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making it uncluttered
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brightening it up
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what your home shows like from the street concentrating on
outside curb appeal.
Plus - Consider taking care of major items, such having your
home painted. Offering an allowance to your prospective buyers, so they can have
painting completed is not the same as having done it for them. Now, as they're
trying to imagine what that new paint job will look like, they may also be
discounting the price even further because of the less-than-perfect look of
those walls.
Remember....
A house that presents well, sells for the best price because it
outshines the competition. Ask your agent if they can arrange a no-obligation
inspection of your home to help you assess the above.
4. Marketing
....Marketing Your Home To Sell! Some Questions You Should
Be Asking!
One of the first steps in your marketing plan involves finding
an agent who will best represent you. When interviewing agents, test and compare
their knowledge and ask each to demonstrate how they will market your home to
buyers. Also compare how much money each spends on advertising the homes s/he
lists, in what media (newspaper, magazine, etc.) and the effectiveness of one
medium over the other. Remember, it's not just how much they spend, but how they
spend it.
Say goodbye to any real estate agents using old,
traditional methods to sell your home because they don't work in today's market!
To be competitive in today's marketplace, agents who use new and
innovative, non-traditional marketing approaches are the ones who are getting
more homes sold fast and for top dollar.
Buyers are Out There...And They Will Come!
Before You Put Your Home Back on the Market remember:
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Effective communication is vital between you and your agent.
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Price your home according to market conditions, competition
and the condition of your house.
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Be sure your house is in showcase, buyer ready-condition.
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Have an innovative marketing plan firmly set in place. Not
intended to solicit property currently listed for sale.
