THE MOST COMMON REASONS A PROPERTY FAILS TO SELL

That’s the big question isn’t it? When your property isn’t selling, it can be frustrating, to say the least! There are of course a few different variables at play here, so let’s break down each one to take a look at the most common reasons a property isn’t selling.

The first reason your home might not be selling is the market. There are 3 types of market – buyers, sellers, and balanced. Most recently, we’ve seen a seller’s market. This could possible change with rising interest rates which could start to slow down the market but a Seller’s market is essentially when the market favours the sellers (versus a Buyers market that favours buyers, or a balanced market where it’s evenly matched). If you are in a seller’s market and your property is not selling, then it is most likely one of the other reasons as to why it’s not moving.

This is the reason that I find to be most common. Your home is priced too high. I’ve especially noticed this in the past couple of years. If you see homes in your neighbourhood selling and yours isn’t, that’s a good indication that yours has too high of a price on it. If you have a REALTOR® representing you, they most certainly will be able to show you the differences between your home and the others. A market analysis provides you with the hard facts, so be sure to give it a read and ask about each property in the analysis and how/where the price to list was derived from. Now, if you are simply hoping to start off high in hopes that the right person comes along and if not that you just lower the price, well you might want to keep in mind that can actually have a negative impact on the sale of your home as the first few weeks of listing are typically when you see the most interest.

Your sale strategy should contain a timeline for getting an offer as well as a timeline for price changes if there is no interest being shown on the property. If you list too high for too long of a period and then lower it, people may simply see it’s been on the market for however long and think that there must be something wrong with the home. Your REALTOR® should be able to indicate to you what would be a low, average and high price for your home from doing a thorough market analysis and then explain how listing within specific ranges can have different outcomes. Choosing the listing price is quite important and that saying of “we can always lower the price” may not be the right answer for you.

Last, but not least, how your home shows and where it is marketed. The Multiple Listing System ® (MLS®) might be one of the biggest factors in making sure buyers are aware that your home is available, so you’ll want to be sure that your property is on there. As a seller working with a REALTOR®, you can opt to share or not to share your listing information with other brokerages (if you don’t, this is called an “exclusive listing”). I firmly believe it is in the Seller’s best interest to make all information available and shareable to have the largest reach possible for your property. From there, there is a whole world of other options for marketing your home. When it comes to magazines there are of course so many different ones to choose from, so be sure that the one you pick is the right fit for your home. Different magazines obviously have specified demographics for their audiences and you want to make sure that their audience and yours align.

You can also use the power of social media to expand your properties’ reach. There are so many platforms available today and these are typically easy to use and offer both organic and paid advertisement options to help your listing be seen.

I hope this information was helpful and if you ever have any questions or would like to dive deeper into this subject, we would be more than happy to chat! Maybe your or a friend are even thinking about selling – and if you’re looking for an experienced & honest team of REALTORS® to help you, then we are an email, text or phone call away!