Northern Utah Homes & Real Estate Blog

Linda Wrote:
I have a home in Syracuse that I’m trying to sell and it’s been listed for over 8 months. We had a few showings in the beginning, but no offers. Now we’re lucky to get 2 showings in a month. Is this because the market is slow, or is my agent just not doing enough to get buyers through? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
Linda

Linda,
You’re not alone if you haven’t noticed. Lots of homes are just sitting with little to no activity. However, homes are still selling everyday.

The problem is that there are far more homes for sale than there are buyers, thus a “buyer’s market”. So hypothetically speaking, let’s say there are 100 homes for sale in your market, and every month 20 homes sell. That’s a 5 month supply of homes if no new homes come on the market. And every month there are 30 new homes on coming board. Can you see the problem that this poses.

So no need to dwell on the negative aspect of this cycle, rather let’s look in the direction of ‘how do you be on of the lucky 30 that are going to sell this month’. Well the good news is that it has less to do with luck, and more to do with buyers seeing greater value in buying your home over the other homes they’re considering. So how do we create value?…I’m glad you asked.

Here are the 3 best ways to “out-Value” your competition:

1. Expert Pricing: First you’ve got to make sure that the price of your home is in line with the current market. At this point you can throw that refi appraisal out the door. You’ve got to see what homes like yours have sold for in the last 90 days. And just as important if not more, what is on the market right now.

Then once you’ve determined a range (say $344,000-$368,000), you’ll want to be on the middle to lower end of it.

“But Will…my house has newer carpet, a new roof, and granite counter-tops, it’s far better than almost all the other comps…doesn’t that count for something?”
-Absolutely it does! Those items will create the “VALUE” we’re after! Only most sellers confuse value for dollars. Let me tell you what I mean. Let’s say the buyer has boiled it down to 3 houses (yours included). All are fairly similar in size, proximity, and style. House #1 is listed for $349,900 house #2 is listed for $365,000 and yours is listed for $362,000. Let’s even say that the only difference between yours and the other 2 is the new carpet, new roof, and granite counter-tops. Which one would you buy?…let me guess…lol. Well, after working with hundreds of buyers I’ll tell you, they will pick the lower priced one about 4 out of 5 times and here’s why. House #1 has carpet, it has counter-tops, and it has a roof. Though they may not be new, its suitable. After all, now they can use the $12,000 savings for things they would prefer to spend it on, like something they “need” or “really want”. But, it doesn’t end there.

What if your home was priced at $352,000? (only $3,000 more than the house #1). Which one has more “VALUE” now? Get where I’m going. If your house has more for the same price or close it , it creates more “VALUE” in the eyes of the buyer.

I call this “Expert Pricing”.

2. Staging: If you’ve ever watched HGTV then you know what I’m about to say. Setting up your home in a manner that accentuates it’s best features dramatically increases it’s impact on a buyer as they’re walking through your home.

The goal here is to maximize the space, detract attention from obvious drawbacks, and create a flow to your home that is harmonious and comforting.

You can get some great tips online on how to stage, or you can hire a professional stager to help you. Dollars spent here yield high returns.

3. Marketing: Getting your home in front of as many buyers as possible is the main goal. However, that isn’t the only place the ball gets dropped.

Often sellers miss small details that lead to lost opportunities. Details like poor quality photos, boring descriptions, and worst of all…making buyers jump through hoops to see the house. They do this by either not answering and returning calls immediately or advertising “Shown by Appointment only”.

In today’s market, lead calls are golden and buyers still make decisions on impulse. First, if a buyer is actually calling on the property, it’s typically because whatever advertisement they saw passed their initial screening. But if you don’t answer or return their call immediately, they may forget what house you are and have lost any preliminary interest.

And if lead calls are golden, a buyer wanting to preview the property is platinum (i know…lame, but anyway). If they are setting up appointments to preview properties and they feel like it is even a little hassle to see yours…then there better be something exceptionally compelling about it that causes them to conform. Keep in mind, they may think your house is “ok” or “not exactly what they’re looking for” at first, then fall in love once they see it thoroughly. But if they eliminated it early on due to a of hint strict showing requirements, then you might just have lost that buyer.

Don’t get me wrong, of course you’ll set up an appointment that works for both of you when they call, but that’s a given…no need to advertise it. And even if they could only see right now, what have you got to lose. By the way, as an agent, those are my favorite showings. Stats on short notice showings are very favorable.

Well Linda, sorry I went off topic a bit, but I hope this helps. Keep me posted on how things are going.

Thanks,
Will