So you’ve done all the work…you’ve set your property up, you’ve put it on the market. You also did multiple showings and even baked all the cookies and brownies – and your house is not selling. The average home can spend up to 60 days on market, according to Realtor.com. Obviously, you can sell your house in a few days or wait several months without it being sold. It happens, and it can be fixed. While you can’t force your house to sell, there are things you could do to detect what you’re doing wrong. If you’re asking why is my house not selling in 2020, or what do you do if your house isn’t selling… you’ve landed on the right page. Here are the 7 reasons why your house isn’t selling and the solutions.
You haven’t refined your listing title, description, and photos
Your listing title, description, and most importantly – photos – are crucial when it comes to attracting buyers. This is especially true today, where more people have moved to browsing properties for sale online. Before even considering showing a house [or giving a virtual property tour under current conditions], you should be able to attract the buyer.
Keep the above in mind as part of your marketing strategy well before your first point of contact with a buyer. Otherwise, you can quite literally sell yourself short. Make sure to upload high-quality photos that capture the best angles of the property, and add a description to attract buyers. Highlight the features of the property that are unique, and leave the rest to the (high quality) photos you post.
Another issue could be where you’re listing your home or rental property for sale. Some platforms may give you less visibility than others. To avoid that, consider listing your property on the Mashvisor Property Marketplace – our tool that helps sellers to list their homes for sale and market to real estate investors and agents.
Your asking price is too high
This one’s quite simple. If your property is priced above buyers’ budget or capacity, your house won’t sell. When buyers choose a specific area or neighborhood to invest in, they usually have a budget that they can’t go over. So say you’re selling a house in a neighborhood where the average property price is $250,000. Unless the real estate property is very special, you shouldn’t be selling it significantly above the average market price.
Related: How Can I Sell My House Fast for Market Value?
When pricing your property, make sure to take the value of the house into consideration, as well as real estate comps – properties similar to yours in area, size, and amenities. You could do this by conducting comparative market analysis (CMA) to learn how to price your property at its most competitive price. You can use Mashvisor to find real estate comps. Learn more about our product.
You have a staging problem
Appearance is important when it comes to showing your house to potential buyers. When buyers walk into a property, they want to be able to picture themselves living there. One reason your house is not selling could be poor staging. Instead of showing the best of the property, you could unintentionally be highlighting flaws in your home.
Make sure to stage the property in a way that best boasts its features, whether that’s through furniture, a good paint job, or even some frames on the walls. Moreover, make sure you fix the cracked kitchen tile, the broken doorknob, etc. Let your interior designer get creative, or simply hire a stager to do the job for you.
Your curb appeal… isn’t quite appealing
Another reason your house is not selling could be the lack of curb appeal. Curb appeal is similar to staging a property, just on the outside. It’s the first and last thing a buyer sees when viewing a property for sale. And the outside of a property can say a lot about what’s on the inside.
Curb appeal is all about the details. You surely don’t need to install a porch swing, nor do you need to hire a landscape architect. Just make sure the property is presentable and well taken care of on the outside. Plant a few flowers, fix the broken porch light, mow and trim the edges of the lawn, and clear out any weeds in the front or back yard.
It’s not the right market, or it’s not the right time
Generally speaking, spring months are the best time to sell a house, and the time of year most housing markets turn into a hot market. Winter months, on the other hand, usually see a slow-down in most buying and selling activity as people focus on the holiday season. These are the general trends that can obviously differ from real estate market to market.
Solution? When selling a house, make sure you’re selling both at the right time, as well as in the right market. Is it currently a buyer’s market or a seller’s market? Keep up with current housing market conditions and overall economic trends in the real estate industry.
Related: Coronavirus Real Estate Update: Is a Buyer’s Market on the Way?
Do you have a real estate agent?
This can go one of two ways:
If you don’t have a real estate agent, aka you’re listing for sale by owner (FSBO), consider hiring or consulting one. They can help you analyze why your house is not selling from their experience with the process. Agents can also devise better ways to list, stage, show, and sell your house.
If you do have a real estate agent, on the other hand, give them a call and check-in. Ask them if there’s anything you could do to move forward. They could be doing something wrong, or simply not be putting enough time into selling your property. Of course, it could be some of the other reasons listed above as well, like market conditions. So don’t jump to conclusions and blame your agent. Rather, open up the conversation and try to figure out a solution together.
We’re living with a global pandemic
We couldn’t go without mentioning it, could we? If your house is not selling during this time, and if none of the above reasons apply to you, just blame “Rona.”
The US real estate market hasn’t seen this much uncertainty since the 2008 housing crisis. And we still cannot clearly foresee how the quickly-developing situation will affect the real estate market in upcoming months. The only solution we could suggest here is shifting to offering virtual showings to potential buyers, and to continue to virtually connect with people in your real estate network – you never know who could be of help to you during this time.
Related: How to Sell a Home During COVID-19 Lockdown
Finally, we’ll leave you with the following (bonus) tip. If you’ve shown your house and it didn’t sell, feel free to get in touch with the buyers to ask what went wrong in the process. You could use this data to identify mistakes you’re making or something you may have overseen. This will help you in resolving any issues future buyers may encounter.
Can you think of any other reasons for a house not selling? Let us know in the comments.