Selling your home easily and quickly is the aim:
So you have had your home on the market all winter, it's been cold and miserable, homes never look the best at this time of the year. The market is always a little hard to judge throughout this time. Properties generally do take longer to sell and prices have been stagnant in regional areas.
So before you go making major changes which could affect your financial outcomes; you really need to ask yourself these questions..
- Why is your property not
selling and are others not selling as well?
- Are you really affected
by tougher market conditions?
- Have the buyers who have inspected been screened properly?
- Are you keeping in touch
with current sale prices in your area?
- Has your property been
correctly marketed to the right buyers?
- Have you received proper
and accurate buyer feedback?
- Does the agency selling
your home ring you, weekly with local market updates?
- Is your home and its
surrounds been presented in the best possible way?
- Are your photographs
accurate and truly representative of your home?
- Are you with the right
agent?
- Is the property the right price?
When selling a home we all want to achieve the best price but there are other considerations as well, such as length of settlement and other sale conditions. For most of us though when we decide to sell a home, we have a very solid reason for doing so and we want to maximise our price.
So if you find yourself in a position where your home has failed to sell over winter, don't despair and quickly change agents. It is often the case that sellers who change agents find out that the grass is not always greener on the other side and all they do is reduce the price and then reduce the price again because they end up so frustrated with the whole process taking so long.
Have an open and honest talk with your agent about properties that have sold in the last two to three months while yours has been on the market, this will allow you to check if your home is priced correctly. Recheck the valuation and price again. This great blog post could help you out. 5 Steps to knowing how much your home is really worth.
Work through the 11 points above systematically and write done the answers. Be honest and open. The results will form part of the very important discussions you can have with your agent regarding the next phase of the selling process. How your agent approaches these discussions should also form part of your decision-making process.
If your agent is defensive, suggests you need more advertising, or more open homes, fails to answer or does not know the answer then carefully consider your next move. If you ask your agent what you should be doing and you get answers like.... 'there's nothing you can do, you just have to wait for the market to pick up' or, 'you need to spend more money advertising it' or, and get this one.... 'I don't know what to do'... don't laugh, Then you do have some serious thinking to do on where to next.
If your relationship with your current agent has gotten to the point where you can't talk openly or have the feeling that they are no longer working in your best interests, then it is time to move on.
It's important to have a positive relationship with your agent whose aim should be to sell your house for the highest price possible in a timely manner.
For the past month or so we have fielded many calls from concerned sellers as to what they should do next in a bid to sell their house so they can move on. Some have changed agents already, thinking that that was the answer and still nothing. Some were even on their third agent!
In conclusion, if you are open and honest with yourself and the agent in reviewing and answering the 11 points above you should have a clearer picture in your head about your situation. If your agent is doing all they can, as they should be because after all... no sale no pay, and you are otherwise happy with them, you may be best off sticking with them and getting to the crux of the problem together. However, if your agent can't offer a timely and reasonable solution to the getting your home sold, contact us and we will identify a possible agent or a better solution.
