Prospects Realty - Sell your home in Less Time at Less Cost and with Less Stress

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8 Major Reasons why your house will not sell?

The reason why your house is not selling is down to three fundamental issues, Condition,
Marketing and Price. Get these right and your house WILL sell in any market. It is imperative
that a seller gets all three correct in order to achieve the maximum price in the shortest time
frame. Lets look at these in more detail.

Condition

It is pretty obvious that the condition of a house will severely affect the value of a property
along with the time it will take to sell it. It is important to achieve that WOW factor when buyers
enter your home along with a must see more impulse from the initial curb appeal when a
prospective buyers arrives outside your home. Remember, the garden is a part of your home,
look at it as an external room. The first room any buyer will see. Based on their first
impression, they could well decide to drive on and not look at the inside. Consequently, get the
garden looking right!

It is also imperative that you get the internal condition and decor correct to achieve the
maximum visual impact, the so called wow factor. Remember, the house you live in is not the
house you sell, you are trying to sell an imaginary life style rather than bricks and mortar. The
lay out could well be different along with the removal of all that clutter. Consequently, in order
to have an independent eye to achieve the correct layout it is important that you employ the
services of a professional stager who will be independent and able to stage the layout in the
manner necessary to achieve the optimum result with what you have. A result that you will be
unable to achieve due to your preconceived ideas and influences after actually living in the
house yourself.

Prospects Realty would recommend the services of a professional stager in order to obtain the
correct lay out and furnishing of your home's interior. We can provide you with the contact
details of several in order for you to be able to work with the one that suits you. Look upon this
as an investment that will produce a quantifiable return in the increased sale price rather than
a sunk cost.

Marketing

Marketing is made up of four items commonly referred to as the Marketing Mix, Product,
Promotion, Place and Price. For house sale marketing the product quotient is the house which
has been covered earlier under the condition section. However your Realtor really is in charge
of the three last items, namely Promotion i.e. how it will be promoted, Place, where it will be
promoted and Price, how much you will ask. Consequently, your selection of the correct
Realtor is fundamental to your success in selling it for the maximum price in the shortest time,
as they actually cover 75% of the process. We will look at their role in what promotions they
should use and where, in this section.

Over the years the real estate industry has relied on the "proven" three P's system which
included: Putting a sign in your yard, Placing a listing on MLS and Praying some else sold it.
You see, unlike other businesses the Realtor you pay to list your home for sale will not usually
be the one who actually sells it! The selling agent will be the one who does the selling to their
client, the actual buyer. Consequently, your contracted agent will have very little influence on
the selling activity, basically limited to the taking to market process or marketing. However, with
the advance of technology this power balance has shifted somewhat allowing the listing
Realtor to take a more pro-active role in the selling process. In todays market it is imperative
that your listing Realtor not only knows about these issues but implements them.

Reverse Prospecting
The listing Realtor has the ability via the MLS listing database to search for and find Realtors
that have clients who have a registered interest in a house just like yours. They will have
placed a search mask on the system to find a house that has features that match yours. The
technology simply matches the two sets of requirements. Your listing Realtor can then contact
the reactors who represent the interested buyers and inform them that they have a house that
one or more of their clients are looking for. Rather like joining the dots. They can then
arrange for the prospective buyer to view your house. This is an essential activity and must be
undertaken by your listing Realtor.

Digital Photographs
At first view the use of digital photographs would appear to be obvious, however you must
remember that the quality of the pictures is paramount when selling products over the Internet,
which is what you will be doing initially with your house. When looking at homes on a computer,
all a Realtor or actual buyers has to base a yes or no decision on is a picture and brief
description. The cliché a picture is worth a thousand words has never been so true.
Consequently, it is extremely important that the photographs your Realtor takes or has taken
shows the best and most relevant features and that they are in focus and level i.e. not inclined
at 45 degrees. Remember it is your house that you are selling not the view from your dining
room or the layout of your kitchen. Although of interest, they are secondary to the external
appearance of your home. To the right are some classic examples of pictures that were
actually used as the main listing photograph. Is it any wonder why so many listing fail to sell. In
all likely hood you will not see your actual listing, so ask to see it, any competent Realtor would
be delighted to do this. It is also imperative that your photographs are put onto the MLS listing
service the same day as the listing, otherwise your listing will appear the next day as a new
listing minus the pictures. Many Realtors ignore new listings if they lack photographs. Hence
your newly listed property will not be seen by a large proportion of buyers who have a
registered interest in it via the client gateway. It is imperative that your photographs are
placed on the MLS at the same time as your listing and not the next day as many are.
The devil is in the detail, you only get one chance at being flagged as a new listing!!

Focused Advertisements
A activity that Prospects Realty undertakes for it's clients is to place focused advertisements in
local media such as Craig's List and Savvy Shopper et al to attract people who have a direct
interest in a house similar to the ones they have listed. Rather like baiting your fish hook with
bait that salmon like when you fish for salmon. This activity generates real interest in their
listed properties facilitating their efficient sale.

Guided House Tours
Unlike the "usual" Realtor who will conduct an Open House where according to the National
Association of Realtors statistics less than 1% of sales result, Prospects Realty organises
guided house tours where again people who have a direct interest in a house like yours are
invited to tour several similar properties on one day. The benefit to them is they get to see
what they are interested with the reciprocal benefit for us being the visibility of competitive
buyers viewing the same house at the same time. Nothing like the fear of losing your dream
home to whet the appetite to make a compelling offer.

Prospects Realty undertakes all of the above activities as a matter of routine for it's clients.
Make sure your Realtor discusses them with you, if not we'd suggest you find a different
Realtor!

Price

The final but most important part of the marketing mix. The importance of pricing a property
correctly from the outset cannot be overstated. This is due to the fact that a new listing on MLS
will receive the maximum of hits or visibility within the first three weeks. Consequently, if a
property is listed with an inflated price compared to it's correct market value it will significantly
impact the level of interest it receives from prospective buyers during the period when most
people will look at it on the MLS system. Your Realtor must price your home correctly to sell it
and NOT to please you in order to get your listing. Over 75% of all listings fail to sell due to
being over priced. Not only is the Realtor a busy fool but so are you when it fails to sell after
waiting or rather wasting three months. You must be committed to selling your house not
merely interested, rather like the bacon and egg breakfast, where the hen was interested and
the pig was committed. Prospects Realty will undertake a thorough price evaluation of your
property called a Competitive Market Analysis in order to define the correct listing price that will
deliver the correct market sale price, remember there is generally a 5% difference between
what sellers ask for and what they agree on. This spread must be factored into the asking
price.

Stepped Price Listing
If a property fails to receive any offers or viewings within the first three weeks it would indicate
that it is over priced. However, the manner in which the price is adjusted will make a significant
impact on the visibility of the property listing on MLS. It is far better to reduce the price in
measured steps rather than in one large jump. In doing so you will get visibility with the buying
Realtors and their clients every time the price is adjusted. Therefore, several steps are far
more advantageous than a single large one.

Make sure your Realtor discusses these issues with you. If not, we suggest you find another
one!

In conclusion, moving home is rather like going on a foreign trip. You need a to fill your travel
bag with: a plan, a map, a compass and have a tour guide in order to get you where you want
to be at the anticipated time. However, your planning will define whether you will end up being
a: