5 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail To Sell Your Home

Published by peter | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Miscellaneous, Real Estate

OK, as I started to think back, I realized I had much more than 10 greattips for people who wanted to fail in selling their home. So I had to do somethinking and choose my top 5, and here are the first five:

Go It Alone

This one is a no-brainer. Most people who put their home onthe market without a real estate broker do so in order to “save the commission,”yet the first question I ask a “FSBO” is whether or not they will pay me if Ibring them a buyer. I have never had a home owner say “No.” In this market, I could not imagine anyone even thinking of turning down help in getting theirhome sold.But here’s the rub. If they put the home on the market as a “FSBO,” yet are willing to pay a broker, then they are really only trying to save 1/2 thecommission. They freely admit they will pay the broker working for the buyer. Hmmmm. OK, so now when my buyer sees the house and sees it is a FSBO, they say“surely the Seller will drop their price because they are not paying abroker.”  And they do.So what really happens (8% of the time when a FSBO does sell a home) is thatthey pay a commission to the one real estate broker on the planet workingagainst them. Then they give the other half to the buyer! Genius.  The one thingthat homeowners who are considering going it alone never consider is that only1 person in a 2 person agreement can “save money.” If you want to be the onethat saves, then you better retain a great real estate broker.

Casually Choose Your Real Estate Company

The second biggest mistake out there is thinking that all real estatecompanies (and all real estate agents and brokers) are alike. Big mistake. Thefact is, real estate is an industry that is easy to enter and many people do soevery year. In fact, the National Association of REALTORS® once published areport showing that 9 out of 10 people who get into real estate are out of the businesswithin their first year.Selling a home is typically a very important, and costly event for mostpeople. It typically involves their most expensive asset, so it always blows mymind when they pick their friend who “also does real estate.” Think about it,in every profession you have the “best in the business,” and then you haveeverybody else. Why trust this most precious asset to somebody who cannotdeliver the very best for you? How can anybody who does our business part-timecompete with those of us who do it full time?If you want to fail to sell your home:

• Do not take your time and interview not only the agent, but also the broker of the company.
• Do not find out what their strategy is.
• Do not find out what their qualifications are.

Hey, you are going to spend thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollarson this service, so do not bother to choose the real estate broker who bestknows how to help you.

Reduce The Commission

OK, this one is actually a little bit like the one above. If you reduce thecommission (meaning that you are going to pay the broker less than the otherhomeowners that you are competing against), who do you think the agents will bepromoting?Real estate agents work for commissions. They feed their families withcommission dollars, they pay their car payments with commission dollars, andthey plan to retire one day using their commission dollars. So don’t be soquick to think that they aren’t paying attention to how much money they willearn when they are showing properties to their buyers.There are thousands of homes for sale in Tampa Bay. While you love your homeand think about it as “one of a kind,” the hard fact is that it is a commodity.You have competition and anybody who understands marketing will tell you a criticalelement in selling your home is product separation (standing apart from thecrowd). The key is to do this in a positive light, not in a negative one.Telling all the real estate agents in the community that you pay less than theothers of your competition is an excellent start in failing to sell your home.

Price Your Home Too High

In the old days, before computers were tracking all the homes for sale inTampa Bay, a common method for marketing a home was to put a high price on itand then “let people bring you offers.” This made great sense, as you knoweverybody wants a deal, so you might as well build in some wiggle room.Another reason that this method was not so bad is that real estate alwaysappreciated! No matter what price you put on the home, eventually the marketwould catch up to it and you would be able to sell your home. But not now.Prices are dropping. If you are overpriced today, the market is not catchingup, it is leaving you behind.You have to understand the process that real estate buyers utilize whenstarting their search for a home. According to the National Association ofREALTORS®, over 80% of them start on the internet and look for propertiesthere. Again, with thousands of homes for sale, you can imagine they put in afew parameters to reduce the list of homes that they need to view.The first parameter most use is price. So, let’s look at an example. Say Mr.and Mrs. Jones want to buy a home. They meet with a Realtor who qualifies themto purchase a home for $250,000. Knowing that the Jones only want to see theideal home for them, our agent starts to narrow down the choices.Since the Joneses will be spending $250,000, there is no need to look athomes that are too expensive, or at ones well below that which they can afford.So, to narrow down the list of homes to preview, the agent will put a pricerange (typically) for this from about $240K to $260K. That will give themhundreds of homes to narrow down with other features.Now in this example, lets say you wanted to sell your home and wereperfectly willing to let it go for $250K.  But you made a poor decision,and priced it at $275,000. Even if the Jones family would have loved your home,they would never have seen it. Remember, you have tons of competition, andprice is the first disqualifier.

Ignore The Market Feedback

If you listen really closely, the market will tell you everything you needto know. First of all, when real estate agents view your home, your listingbroker needs to solicit their opinions on the home. How does the home show? Howdoes it compare with other homes with similar asking prices? What did theirbuyers choose to buy rather than this home.So the key to not selling your home is to either not ask the questions, orat least ignore the answers. Why bother getting feedback from people who didn’tbuy the home? Your home is your castle and it will sell without any effort.