15 Reasons Your House Hasn’t Sold
15 Reasons Your House Hasn’t Sold: The Blueprint to Sell Any House was written by Joshua Inglis who is a bestselling author and real estate agent in the Chicagoland area. It was written to help sellers who tried selling their home once before but were unsuccessful. This book gives an in-depth analysis of why houses that are listed typically have a better chance of failing to sell than they do of actually selling. More importantly this book gives the steps that are necessary to sell any house. Some of the reasons a house won’t sell are:
- Underpricing a home. A house that is listed at odd numbers like $299,000 get less exposure online than a house that is listed at $300,000. This is because all online searches are done in even increments. Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and Redfin are all set up to do searches in even increments. So if someone started their search at $300,000 and you were listed at $299,999, your house would not be found on that search result.
- The house doesn’t stand out on online searches. The photos for the home need to be professionally done. Your house is in an online competition with thousands of houses for sale.
- No video of the home. Video is one of the most powerful mediums and needs to be professionally produced.
- Confusion of a houses layout. Your house should have floorplans and a 3D virtual reality tour created for it.
- The house not being staged. Your house should be staged physically, virtually, or both. This make a house feel like HOME.
- The house not having it’s own website. It is better to have people look on a website that is created for your home than a third party site like Zillow or Trulia where thousands of other homes are listed for sale. We want people to engage with your home through the photos, video, 3d tour, floor plans, and school information.
- The house not being on social media. Not only should your house be on social media but it should also have it’s own Facebook page.
- The house not having takeaways and print marketing. Studies have shown that people are more likely to buy something when they have a physical piece of marketing in their hand. That is why potential buyers should never leave empty handed when they view your house.
- The house not having mailers sent out to the community. This is the best way to inform the community that the house is for sale. 17 times out of 20 your buyer or buyers friends and family live within a 5 mile radius of the subject house.
- The house not having good signage. The house should have a professional sign created. It should have 4 ways for buyers to get information about the house (phone, text, website, and QR code).
- A messy house. The house needs to be almost eat off the floor clean in order to sell. Would you buy a brand new car from a dealership and pay top dollar if there were McDonalds wrappers on the ground or a greasy steering wheel? The answer is probably not and people feel the same way when they buy a house.
- A smelly house. Cooking odors, smoke odors, mildew odors, and pet odors are deal killers for most buyers. That is why you will want to deodorize the home as much as possible.
- A house that is difficult to view. Your house must be accessible for potential buyers to view. Many times buyers will only go out 2 or 3 times before they make a decision to purchase and if they are unable to view your house when they go out, they will likely never come back and purchase something else.
- An Agent that doesn’t go above and beyond. Your real estate agent must be willing to do whatever it takes to sell your house ethically and legally.
- A House that is overpriced. If you overprice the house, you will actually make the competition sell faster. That is why you need to look at the data and price the house correctly using market research and data.
If you tried selling your house in the past but were unsuccessful, this is a must read! To purchase the book, click here.