Did you ever wonder, why isn’t my house selling?

But your neighbor listed his home and put it under agreement in two days. And, he received $10,000 over asking! Yesterday, the house one street over had 60 people at the first open house and went under contract the next day….

Especially in this red hot seller’s market, you are hearing success stories of homes going over asking….. open houses being flooded and homes being sold immediately after hitting the market.

Believe it or not, this will happen in any market, even a seller’s market.  With as many success stories as you hear, homes still sit on the market unsold and eventually expire.  Or, they linger on the market with several price changes before they are sold.

Often you don’t hear about the homes that struggle to sell.  No one is at work bragging about how their home has been on the market for 120 days with 3 price reductions!

Showings = Offers, No Showings = No Offers

Showings are vital to your home sale success.  You need to expose your home to the right buyers and get them to personally view your home with their agent.

If you have no one showings on your home, you will certainly not be getting any offers.  A home must be compelling to a particular segment of buyers who are willing to pay your price to get your home sold.

Your real estate agent should help you set realistic expectations about how many showings you can expect and how long your home will be on the market.

For an average home in most markets around me, I would say, you should easily expect 12-15 showings in the first 3 weeks and an offer within 12-15 showings.

What If You Have a Ton Of Showings But My House Still Isn’t Selling

It’s great to get showings; it is the right step to sell your home.  But what if you have plenty of showings and no offers?  Tons of showings with no offers is equally as bad as no showings, but they each tell you something. The goal is to get your house sold!

You have missed the boat if you get no showings and no offers.  If you are getting showings, but no offers, you’re still missing the boat in some aspects.

My House Is Getting Tons of Views On Zillow, But No Showings

This is one REALTORS hear often.  So what is it telling us?

Once you get the person to view the details of the property on Zillow or a related real estate site, you are losing them.  They are not finding your house compelling enough to schedule a showing. 

So in this instant gratification world we live in now, you have a few seconds to catch a buyer’s attention….  

Is it hot or Not!!

Ok, so what about the house getting showings but no offers?  You are piquing the buyer’s interest enough to look at your home for sale online.  But, you are failing to impress them.  It’s not HOT!!

Why Isn’t My Home Selling? Here’s 6 Reasons Why:

You listed your home for sale and waited for the flood of people to come thru the door…. but no one came.  Or you are getting showing but no offers.  Now what? Let’s look at six common reasons why your home isn’t selling.

The Over Confident Seller

The overconfidence of a seller can contribute to a home not selling.  An overconfident seller believes their house is better than anything and can get tens of thousands more than any comparable home.

The overconfident seller will also believe that a hot seller’s market will make their home fly off the market.  But, many times, the overconfident seller feels like they do not need to heed their agent’s advice on preparing their home for the market or even look at the comps to price it competitively.

A hot market does not mean you can skip the home preparation basics like cleaning, de-cluttering, depersonalizing and more, to get your home show-ready.

Skip home selling 101 when it comes to pricing and preparation and the overconfident seller turns to a disappointed seller very quickly when no one wants to view their home. 

The overconfident seller makes one bad decision after another regarding listing their home.

Your Home Is Over Priced

About 70% of your home selling success is based on how you price your home.  There is never a good reason to overprice a home.  And on top of it, no single agent or any amount of marketing will sell an overpriced house.  Overpricing a home is a very common home-selling mistake.

The Internet is a game-changer for real estate.  Buyers have access to every home on the market at their fingertips.  If they don’t like your home online they aren’t scheduling a showing.

Understand, for the most part, buyers choose the homes they want to see.

A home needs to be compelling to home buyers to get them up off the couch to schedule a showing and view your home. 

What makes a home compelling is its presence online compared to how it stacks up to competing homes.  But remember, the asking price has much to do with how compelling a home is to a buyer.

A home that is compelling to buyers at $495,000 won’t be as compelling at $539,000.  At $539,000 you won’t even show your home to the right buyer.

And will certainly have absolutely no appeal at $600,000.  Your home can’t compete at a higher list price.  All you do is make the more expensive homes look better.

Pricing your home properly is a critical component of a home sale.  Overprice and you may be sitting there with no showings or very few showings on your home.

Your Listing Photos Suck!!

After pricing your home correctly, the 2nd most critical piece of your home sale is presenting professional quality real estate photos of your home online.  Many agents, if they don’t have the ability to take quality real estate photos themselves, hire professional real estate photographers.  That is what you will be competing with.

If your agent is pulling out their cell phone at the listing appointment to photograph your home this could indicate there is trouble ahead.

Photos are what grab the attention of potential home buyers.  If they don’t like the photos, they will not look any further or schedule a showing.

Just like the dating site Tinder they swipe left and move on to the next potential house.

The impression the photographs of your home give the home buyer is critical to the successful sale of your home.

You Failed To Properly Prepare Your Home

If you are asking why my house isn’t selling, ask yourself if you just slapped your home on the market or you worked with your REALTOR to prepare your home correctly.

Part of presenting your home online is to use great listing photos and also have your home show-ready before the photos are taken.

We briefly talked about preparing your home under the overconfident seller.  Your home needs to be clean, decluttered and depersonalized at the very least.  You can flip through your local MLS and see homes with beds not made, horrible decor, dishes in the sink, closets overflowing, etc…..

Again getting a buyer interested in scheduling a personal showing for your house starts with the images of your home online.  Fail to impress your buyers and they will fail to schedule a showing.

No Access For Showings

I always run into one or two sellers a year that doesn’t seem to think they actually have to show their home to sell it.  They deny every showing request that comes along.  Yet wonder why their house isn’t selling.  For whatever reason, it is always inconvenient for the seller to allow a potential buyer in to view their home.

You have to remember as busy as your family might be so are the buyers.  On top of it, home buyers’ schedules can be completely different than yours.

Or the other scenario is your agent makes it difficult for the buyers to schedule a showing of your home.  Agents that schedule their own showings or accompany showings can also hinder access to your home.

The worst part of it is you might not even know that your agent lost a showing or a number of showings for you because they either did not respond in a timely manner or was not able to accommodate the buyer’s schedule.

Deny one showing they may call for another, deny two the buyers are gone!

A lost showing is a lost opportunity to sell your home.  All it takes is one buyer!!

You Chose A Poor Listing Agent

Just because someone has a real estate license does not mean they know what they are doing.  An experienced listing agent has a well-documented marketing plan with a history of success.  On top of it listing a home properly takes time and costs money, is your agent prepared to do what it takes?

The biggest job of your listing agent is to help you prepare and price your home for current market conditions and properly expose your home on the internet.   An experienced listing agent will do just that.

Hire an agent based on their experience, past history, reputation and the strength of their marketing plan.  Avoid hiring your niece who just passed her exam or the agent who just gave you the highest price.

The agent you choose pulls everything together for you.  And a good agent will back up what they say with data.  Trusting their judgment and experience is critical for your home selling success.

Final Thoughts on Why Your Home Isn’t Getting Shown

A successful sale is not a happenstance. It is usually a carefully crafted plan.  While we are in a hot seller’s market, it isn’t a reason to ignore the basics of selling a home.  When the market softens and becomes more neutral or even a buyer’s market it is even more important to get it right, to begin with.

Your listing agent should help you set some basic expectations for your listing.  How many showings you should be getting per week as well as how long it may take to get an offer.  There is data available as a real estate agent to help you know what to expect.

But, if you list your home and you don’t get any showings or fall short of expectations it is time to step back and take a look at what might be going on.  It is important to readjust your listing sooner rather than later, as there is some buyer psychology going on here.

Other Home Seller Resources:

• Xavier De Buck  Common Mistakes When Hiring A Real Estate Agent
• Lynn Pineda  Dont Make One of These Seller Mistakes That Prevents Your House From Selling
• Bill Gassett   Are Deferred Showings Right For Your Listing
• Joe Boylan   Showing Checklist
• Kyle Hiscock  10 Tips for Getting Your Home Ready to Show

6 Reasons Why Your Home Isn’t Getting Showings is written by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate. If you would like to sell your home or buy a new home give me a call at 978-360-0422 and let’s get the process started.

Real Estate Services in the following areas: Northeast Massachusetts, Merrimack Valley, North Shore and Metrowest. Including the following communities and the surrounding area- Amesbury, Andover, Billerica, Burlington, Chelmsford, Dracut, Groveland, Haverhill, Lowell, Melrose, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, North Andover, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wakefield, Wilmington, Westford