Although analysts continue to publicize the notion that we are currently in a seller’s market, this does not always mean that a homeowner’s home will sell fast. Any number of factors can affect whether your home is selling, and overlooking these factors can keep your home on the market longer than anticipated. In this article, we will review what you can do if your home is not selling.
- Re-Evaluate the Asking Price
Occasionally, listing agents and sellers will aggressively market a property, hoping that they will be able to take advantage of the seller’s market. After all, less inventory means higher prices for sellers. However, often times this can backfire, resulting in minimal offers on the property and many below the asking price. If this is the case for your home, it may be time to have the home re-evaluated so you can ensure you are asking for a fair market price.
Should you find that your home is accurately valued, you may want to consider listing the home below market value. Although this is not any seller’s favorite option, lowering the price may often drive more buyers to make an offer.
- Change Your Real Estate Agent
Marketing a property comes down to how you sell, and if you do not have an effective real estate agent, then your property may be sitting on the market unnoticed. With the abundance of platforms now available to agents, there can often be an overwhelming number of opportunities for buyers. Therefore, it is imperative that the agent be pro-active – that includes email marketing, cold calls, and implementing other marketing tools to make your home the best available option for buyers.
To better understand whether your real estate agent is effectively marketing your property, here are a few questions you can ask them:
- Where are you marketing the property?
- What does your marketing material look like?
- What is your email marketing campaign?
Each of these questions can provide you with further insight on whether you hired the right person for the job.
- Wait to Sell
Depending on your situation, you may have the opportunity to wait to sell. If you are listing in the fall and winter there tends to be fewer buyers. Maybe your local economy is struggling and unemployment rates are rising. If this is the case, the buying pool may just not exist. Therefore, waiting to sell may be your best option.
- Upgrade Your Home
Many buyers are seeking upgraded homes. Especially in the Baytown area, due to increased development of homes from recent flood years, new homes are in higher supply. Therefore, your potential buyer may be ruling out your home because it does not compare to the others on the market. Renovations may cost time and money upfront, but in the long run, they can make your home more competitive on the market and even increase your home’s value.
- Offer Seller Financing
Many buyers, especially in economically struggling markets such as Baytown, do not have adequate buyers – in other words, the buyers do not have the capital to put down, or they do not have the appropriate credit score to get a loan. In these cases, sellers have the option of offering seller financing or a rent-to-buy option. What does this mean? This means the buyer will move in under your terms, rather than those of a lender. The length of the contract will be determined by what you both agree on. Other variables in this contract can provide you benefits as well: you can make more money, gain passive income, and increase your pool of potential buyers.
Now, You Choose…
Each of these options can help boost the chance of you selling your home. Depending on the issues related to the sell, each offers both pros and cons. The time and capital you have to invest into getting the highest offer bears a major impact on how you can improve the statistics for selling your home.
However, if you are looking for a simple solution that requires NO marketing, NO real estate agent, NO seller financing, NO upgrades, and NO waiting, then look no further. We here at Gulf State Homebuyers provide clients, just like yourself, with competitive offers on the home. We also offer the ability to close in as quickly as 5 business days. If you would like more information, don’t wait – contact us today and we can get started on your free home assessment. And if the option doesn’t seem right for you, at least you will get that re-evaluation mentioned in option one!
