Are You a Bad Home Seller?

by: Marc Rasmussen – Sarasota Florida real estate

Is your home for sale and languishing on the market? Has your home been for sale for a long time with no luck and fewer and fewer showings? You might be a bad or out of touch seller. Here are six signs to watch out for:

1) “My house is the best!”

Despite the fact that your home has been for sale for a long time without attracting an offer you still think your home is the best. All of the buyers that have viewed your home are wrong and you are right. You think your home is better than all of your competitors. It does not matter that one of your competitors is a bigger home, newer and on a better lake. Your home is still better – “just because it is.”

2) “We don’t need to lower the price”

Even though you are getting fewer and fewer showings as time goes by and none of the buyers put in an offer you still think your home is worth what you are asking. You are right about price and everybody else is wrong.

3) “We just need more advertising”

Your solution to the problem is more advertising. Instead of cleaning, fixing, improving your home or lowering the price you believe your home has not sold because it has not been advertised enough. You think your Realtor should spend more money advertising your home because that will make it sell. The most effective tool a Realtor has is the MLS (multiple listing service). In many cases that is all the marketing you need to sell a home. I can price home a right, provide easy access and stick it on the Sarasota MLS and there is a good chance it will sell.

Remember, buyers look at several homes when deciding on a home. Let’s assume your Realtor puts your house on the front page of the Sunday newspaper every single week. That may drum up buyers that look at your home. However, those same buyers will look at the competition too. If your competition is a better value then your advertising just helped sell them.

4) You want too much for your upgrades

Your home is gorgeous. You recently updated the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and landscaping. You spend $125,000 on the improvements. The problem is you added $200,000 to the asking price of your home because of the improvements. You won’t always get dollar for dollar on improvements. Those were your improvements. The buyers might have chosen a different tile or granite. Make your improvements wisely because you might not always get the money back.

5) You know more than your Realtor

Even though you have sold a handful of properties in your life and your Realtor might have sold more than a hundred homes you still know more. You don’t need to listen to the expert who works in the trenches day in and day out. What do they know? Afterall, your house is the best!

6) The market is wrong

You ignore the fact that many of your competitors have sold since your house has been on the market. The buyers who have seen my house are wrong. The Realtors who came through on the caravan are wrong. My Realtor is wrong. I am right!

If the above sounds anything like you then you may need a dose of reality. The real estate market dictates what your home is worth. You just get to decide if that price is enough for you.