Why Your House Isn’t Selling (And How to Get it Sold Fast!)

If your house has been on the market for a while, there has to be a reason for it. It can be frustrating when a house you expect to sell quickly goes unsold. The longer it is listed, the more the value drops. Often homeowners are forced to lower the price of their high-value home in order to get it to sell. Your home may have one or many of the following issues, preventing it from selling.

In this article, I cover why your home may not be selling, and how you can get it to sell faster. Let’s dive in!

Why Isn’t My House Selling?

Location

The prime reason for rejection is often the location of the house. Homebuyers can be very specific when it comes to where they want to live. Buyers may want to be close to good schools and parks. On the other hand, some buyers see living within walking distance of restaurants and shopping centers as desirable.

While there is nothing you can do to change the location of your home, finding the right buyer can be key. Playing up the positives of a house can occasionally help homebuyers look past a bad location. In the end, sometimes the only thing to do to sell a house with a bad location is to lower the price.

Poor Architecture

The architecture of house matters and, more often than not, it cannot be easily altered without spending huge sums of money.

• Low ceilings
• Unmodifiable floor plans and
• Strange sizing or rooms
• Unusable proportions of rooms

There are just some things that are generally out of a house seller’s control. However, they heavily influence a buyer’s decision to buy or look over a certain house.

Mold or Pest Issues

Mold and mildew can become a real pain for a homeowner to deal with, and a problem that nobody wants to buy into. So take some necessary actions,

• Scrub out the mildew
• Hire someone to take care of any serious mold
• Dehumidify your house
• Patch up holes and spaces that are letting moisture in – the same precautions will also allow you to get rid of pests like cockroaches, centipedes, and spiders

Maintenance Issues

Before putting your house up for sale, it’s helpful to finish any repairs or maintenance work that needs to be done. No matter how beautifully staged your house is or how prime its location, if you haven’t maintained or performed the necessary repairs on it, the value of your house will fall. For any house to look and feel as good as new, it needs to be kept up.

Clutter

Before an open house or home showing, be sure to de-clutter. Walking into a cluttered house with toys spread across the floor, piles of books on every shelf, and walls covered in family pictures can completely put off a potential client. It’s fine if your home looks that way normally. But buyers want to see something clean and free of clutter. That way they can picture their own belongings in the home. So clean up.

Lack Of Natural Light

A lot of houses are rejected for not looking bright and airy. Make sure blinds and curtains are completely open, letting in as much natural light as possible. If your house doesn’t have a lot of big, open windows that can let the sunshine through, try turning on or installing lights.

Nobody likes dark and dreary houses. A little bit of sunlight can change the entire appearance of a house. Sometimes this means having a window or two installed. It can make your house feel bright and welcoming and be all you need to attract potential customers.

Death in the Home or Rumors of Hauntedness

This might seem silly, but several home sellers have pointed out that people are very hesitant about buying houses that are reported to have had a death in them or have rumors about the house being haunted. Despite the home sellers’ best efforts, a lot of clients report having a bad feeling about buying a house where the death occurred.

Bad Odors or Unruly Pets

Unruly pets running around when potential clients come to visit are very distracting. A bad odor permeating the house, especially due to pets, can quickly turn off a potential buyer. Make sure to remove your pet during a showing. Freshen up the house to remove any lingering smells. Light some candles and spray some air freshener so your client can walk into a pleasant-smelling house.

Lackluster Interior Décor

While you can’t do much about the exterior or the architecture of your house, the interior is entirely in your hands. Outdated floor planning, bad furniture, and very bold paint colors might not be the most attractive sight for a lot of people.

When you contemplate selling your house, make sure the interior décor fits the style of the day. When in doubt, your safest bet is to go with a neutral color palette and simple design that appeals to most people. Renovating outdated kitchens and bathrooms can add a lot of value. When that isn’t an option, making some low-cost changes to the wall color, curtains and general décor can help.

Uncooperative Seller and Unrealistic Price

Oftentimes, it is the house sellers themselves that are the problem. They may either be unwilling to show clients around, maybe too nosy and interfering, might not be willing to make any concessions during negotiations, or maybe stuck on an unrealistic price. The home sellers themselves become the greatest barrier to a sale, despite a desirable house.

What’s the Fastest Way to Sell a House?

Whether you opt for an agent or try to sell the property yourself; there are certain guidelines that can make your property more desirable. The following tips below can help you sell your house faster.

FSBO

FSBO means For Sale By Owner. This means that the seller is willing to sell the house on their own rather than by hiring an agent. Not going through an agent, though not advised, has its own benefits. The most obvious one is that you won’t have to pay their commission. This works when you are trying to sell the house to someone you know, or if you want cash offers.

Cash offers might be the fastest way to sell the house. But you will have to compromise on the price. If you opt for an agent, you can choose the ones with the fastest-selling records in your area. Agents are also proven to sell houses for a higher price than owners themselves could.

People also think that since the buyer has an agent anyway, what’s the point of having your own? But understand that the buyer’s agent will share the buyer’s interest, not your urgency to sell the house.

Fix the Property

Before putting the property on the market, make sure you have fixed your house as best as you could. Any flaw that can be removed should be. Examples include faulty wiring or a small patch on the wall that can be painted in five minutes. Fix everything you can.

Small things like these, will give them leverage to negotiate with you for a lower price. You may lose more in the overall price of the house than you will in an overall fix. Better yet, get your property inspected before putting it on the market.

Cleanliness

Cleanliness should be a standard living condition but it needs to be even more pronounced when you are trying to sell your house. A clean house sets buyers at ease. It may also encourage them to forego an inspection, which will save even more of your time.

In addition to the usual cleaning of the house, try to make it junk-free. Whenever someone lives in one place for too long, they start collecting things that they may not ever need but don’t throw them away. There might also be furniture that is cluttering up the rooms, making them seem full and claustrophobic.

When you decide to sell your house, try getting rid of all the things you have no use for beforehand. This will not only make the house seem more spacious but will also be convienent for you when you move. Decorate your remaining furniture in a way that will make your house feel bright and inviting.

Stage the Property

It may seem like an extra chore, especially when you are in a hurry to make a sale, but staging your house in an inviting way will increase your chances of selling it faster. You don’t have to go out of your way to make your house look like something it’s not. Just focus on two things: Comfort and impersonality.

When you prepare the house for a prospective buyer, make sure everything they see is clean and in order. Set the table, water the plants, and arrange all the shelves neatly.

Try to impersonalize it. Remove all the objects that are directly associated to you, like family photos, clothes, named cups, etc. The house should have a comfy look that they can picture themselves living in.

Improving the front of the house, with plants and fresh paint is also a very desirable way to increase the curb appeal (how your house looks from the outside) of your house. It also makes a great first impression.

Using Multiple Outlets and Photos to Advertise

Even if you have hired a top real estate agent, and listed your property through them, it always pays to advertise your house using other avenues as well: Social networking, your personal contacts, your agents’ social network, and even your neighbors. All of these channels can get more eyes on your property.

Many prospective buyers prefer to shortlist the properties they want to visit, by going through their online profiles. Photos make a great impression in this regard.

Make sure the photos are properly taken; they should show the house from all the angles, in and out, that buyers want to see. But the photos have to be a genuine representation of the house. It’s a deal-breaker if a buyer finds that the real property is nothing like them.

No matter how fast you want to sell the house, understand that it is a huge financial decision. You want to make a deal that you will not regret afterward, just because you were in a hurry.

The tips above can help you turn your house into a very desirable property. Combine that with selecting a good agent, setting a realistic price, and taking an active part in the advertisement yourself. You will be selling your property faster than you thought was possible.

What to do if your house isn’t selling?

If you haven’t already, hire a real estate agent to help you understand what is holding your home back. Do all the repairs you can on your home without overextending your budget. Make sure the home is presentable for visits from prospective buyers. Adjust the price of the home so that it attracts more buyers. After making those changes, you’ll have a much easier time selling. 

Selling your own house is definitely challenging. If you’re having trouble getting your house to sell, a real estate agent experienced in your area can help. If you need help selling, search our directory for top real estate agents near you. Or have us send you a list by answering some questions here:

Source: https://www.fastexpert.com/blog/why-your-house-isnt-selling/