Homes for sale in Murfreesboro, and the surrounding Nashville, Brentwood, Middle Tennessee area in abundance. Although our housing market here has been good, the competition is fierce and the average time to sell a home has been longer than usual. Are you becoming frustrated because your home has been on the market for some time and you have been unable to find a buyer? If so, here are some of the top reasons that a home sits on the market without selling!
1. Your Home Is Simply Overpriced! Although few homeowners like to hear this, it is quite frankly the most common mistake sellers make. Re-evaluate the comparative market analysis for your home and really scruitinize how you arrived at the listing price. The competition is fierce and home buyers have a large assortment of homes to choose from. They will not be interested in "making an offer" on a home that is priced too high. So many homeowners want to price their home high to give them bargaining room when they receive an offer. This is a huge mistake! This type of pricing tactic will prevent any offers from coming in, and will actually encourage extremely low offers when and if they are submitted! Lastly, it makes no difference to the potential buyer how much money you need, or want to make, off of the sale of your home. The value of your home is determined by the CURRENT market conditions and the condition of your home. Don't price your home based on the amount of cash you need to make off of your home!
2. Your home is not unique to the area. If you live in what is referrred to as a "cookie cutter" type of subdivision, you may be fighting against multiple homes with the same floorplan and exterior as your own home. The market is a little slow at the current time and there may just be too many homes and not enough buyers. If you are one of a thousand identical homes, you MUST make your home standout from the pack! Lowering the price is an option, but it's not the only option and probably isn't the most important option! If you want to stand out, here are some things to consider:
3. Offer a financial incentive to the buyer's agent by paying a slightly higher commission or bonus to the buyer's agent. The market is slow for everyone, including agents! This little extra incentive may be enough to make buyer's agents work extra hard to find a buyer for your home.
4. Offer the potential buyer a financial incentive by paying all or part of their closing costs or buying down their interest rate.
5. Provide a one year home warranty to the buyer. This is such a huge marketing tool and can really give your home that little extra edge over the competition. A home warranty can be added to your home during the listing period, and also for the buyer for one year after closing for only $390! A small price to pay for a great piece of marketing and advertising.
6. Consider leaving all appliances, including the refrigerator and even the washer and dryer. This should only be done if the appliances are fairly new and in excellent condition. This can be a big plus for families moving from out of state.
7. Have your home in pristine condition. Paint, clean, and declutter. You can't just clean your home, you need to scrub it until it sparkles and then have it "show ready" at all times. Staging a home can make a huge difference on how buyer views your home. If you help staging your home, discuss this with your Realtor!
8. Offer extra goodies! I showed a home this weekend that included their almost new Plasma TV that was hanging on the wall. This was a very tempting incentive for the husband. Although my buyers have decided to purchase in another area, the idea of moving into a home in pristine condition that already had the appliances and a new plasma TV was very, very tempting. As an agent, I was also impressed with this house and will definitely show it to other future buyers if it remains on the market...which I doubt that it will!
9. Have yoru home preinspected by a licensed home inspector. This can be another great marketing tool and also saves the buyer money. It also saves you the worry of wondering what the buyer's inspector will find, and lets you be in complete control of the cost of the repairs.
10. Be realisitic if you have a "fixer-upper." Very few buyers are interested in purchasing a home that needs a lot of work and cleaning. Don't try to sell a home in poor condition by stating you will give the buyer a carpet allowance, or paint allowance. This simply will not work! Either invest in having the repairs and renovations done prior to listing your home....or price it accordingly and advertise it as a home that needs work! A fixer-upper will only be attractive to a small pool of buyers and you should capitalize on that pool by advertising effectively.
11. Your home is hard to show or doesn't show well. In a perfet world, buyer will let their agent know 24 hours ahead of time that they want to view your home. In the real world, this doesn't happen. Have your home clean, and ready to show at a moments notice. Make sure you have planned for your pets and your home doesn't have any pet odors! This is such a huge turn off for buyers!
12. Your home may be too outdated. If you live in an area where some homes have been updated, but your home has not, make sure you have priced it accordingly. A lot of updating can be done on a shoe string budget but can make a big impact on the way your home shows. Update or price your home correctly.
13. You lack curb appeal! Look at the outside of your home and prevent you have never been to your home before. What does the buyer see? Is the yard manicured? Are the shrubs trimmed and healthy? Is your mulch in good condition? Buyers make their first impression within 7 seconds of seeing your home. Make sure your home is show ready on the exterior.
15. Is your home in a bad location? If so, you really can't move your home. The only way to battle an undesireable location is through price. (See Number One!) What is a bad location? Perhaps your home is considered too far out from town, maybe it backs up to a smelly chicken farm, perhaps your backyard backs up to a four lane highway, perhaps you have a corner lot where there is a lot of traffic, does your home sit directly in front of a busy intersection where headlights would shine in your windows at night, or possibly your home is very clean and well maintained but other homes around you are in disarray! Never underestimate the value of...LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! If your value is lowered because of a bad location, then your price must be lowered as well!
16. Your home is not being marketed properly. The competition is tough and you need to market your home! Over 80% of ALL home buyers search for their home online. That is HUGE! You home MUST be advertised extensively on the internet through various websites, with virtual tours and quality digital images attached. Be sure your home is described ACCURATELY and all of your wonderful features are mentioned. I recently showed a home to a buyer only to discover that this was a custom built home for a handicapped seller. No where in the listing was this mentioned! While my buyer immediately marked this home off of her list, it would be PERFECT for another buyer who was desperately searching for a handicapped accessible home!! I see mistakes like this made almost daily in the MLS listings. Describe, describe, describe, and then recheck what your agent as described!
If you are interested in selling your home anywhere in the middle Tennessee area, including Murfreesboro, Brentwood, Franklin, Mt. Juliet, or Hendersonville, I would love to talk with you! I would welcome the opportunity to discuss my 30 step marketing plan with you and show you how different my approach to selling real estate really is! Yes, there IS a difference in Realtors! Please feel free to call me anytime at 615-566-3689 for a free, detailed comparative market analysis of your home!
