1.Your home won’t sell if it won’t appraise. Buyers just can’t get a mortgage if the home they fall in love with doesn’t appraise. Even if they come up with the shortfall they won’t get mortgage insurance.  Yes there are a few cash buyers out there, but they have the money in their pockets for good reason. They are savvy, and rarely buy without an appraisal. Would you?  Today’s buyers’ don’t even waste time looking at homes that are overpriced. They insist on seeing the Current Market Analysis of each home on their shortlist. If it doesn’t fall into the correct price range, it doesn’t make the cut. Period.

It’s a harsh reality and yes, your neighbors might well have sold for xxx just months ago, and you know your house is better, for whatever the reason, but if you aren’t priced correctly at the time you go to market, quite simply, it will not sell. Buyers are looking at short sales and foreclosures as viable options and your home IS affected by them. No, it’s not fair, but it’s a FACT. If you can't afford to sell it for the price that your Realtor proves it’s worth, this may not be the right market for you to sell, or maybe you need to be looking at different options such as a Short Sale.

2.Your home won’t sell if your marketing is anything less than perfect. Over 90% of buyers start their search for a home on the Internet, so your property has to look fantastic online. Not just OK, it has to look Absolutely Fabulous!  Today an online Virtual Open House has taken over from the traditional onslaught of nosy neighbors and looky loos... But it has to be not only extremely well videoed or photographed, but well written with warm, enticing copy or even better, narration. That way you might just convince potential buyers to visit in person. Your first showing has really become their second viewing. If the Virtual Open House is done right, prospective buyers will already know their way around your house, and be dying to look inside that closet for an even more in-depth experience. With today’s inventory, albeit the lowest for four years in the Greater Hudson Valley, (it’s still over 5,000 more than there was available at the height of the market,) buyers will only bother visiting the very best of what they see online... Make sure your marketing includes your own website with magazine quality pictures PLUS a Virtual Open House, PLUS links to area information (schools, town, activities etc.,) or you don’t stand a chance of making the shortlist.

3.Your home won’t sell because it smells or shows wear and tear. Pet litter trays must be immaculate, dog beds should be clean and sprayed with Febreeze before showings. Animals should be absent or caged for showings (but barkers need to be out). Birds MUST be caged and hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs etc., should never be in seen in the kitchen and their cages should be freshly cleaned. If you smoke indoors, DON’T. Take it outside, then take all your clothes to the dry-cleaners or hang outside for a few days. Wash all the walls with a diluted bleach solution and have all your furniture and carpets professionally cleaned. You can’t smell it. Buyers can. Oh, and forget all the old tricks: candles, fresh baking and simmering something delicious on the cook-top. That raises red-flags as to what is it you might be hiding. Windows and light fixtures should be sparkling, carpets should be freshly cleaned and vacuumed, bumps and scrapes on walls and doors filled and painted. No, buyers won’t love your daughter’s pink vinyl built-in furniture or little Johnny’s black bedroom. Rooms should be painted in current or neutral colors. 1950’, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and yes even 90’s colors and appliances are out. Some things are worth changing, others can be overcome by pricing it right. Consult your Realtor as to your best options, sometimes it’s really worth hiring an organizer or stager to “Set the Stage” for success, and they should have some good recommendations.

4.Your home won’t sell if buyers don’t know that your home is for sale. A for sale sign in the window or yard will prove extremely frustrating. If you don’t have an internet presence you may as well give up now.  The days are gone when putting an ad in the paper and maybe having an agent put your property on the MLS brought results. Nowadays if you aren’t on all the websites...(Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, Craig's List, Google Base, Front Door etc...) where buyers are searching, you need to be, and NOW! If your Realtor doesn’t have a laptop/tablet or I-Pad to show you these sites, get another Realtor. Today’s real estate needs to be marketed, not just listed. Find a Realtor who understands what that means, and can show you how they will market your home on the Internet. Every agent can put you on the MLS and their broker’s web-site, but you’ll need far more firepower to beat the competition and have buyers find your home first.

5.Your home won’t sell because your listing is tired and stale on the market. Okay... yes you overpriced your home initially when you first came on the market a year and a half ago.  But since then you have reduced your price almost monthly, constantly chasing the market down. Now, finally you're ready to list at a price that will appraise but your listing (not your house) has become tired and stale.  Everyone who is looking for your type of property (ie: 4-br/2.5 bath) in your area has already seen the listing online, or in person and they remember that there was "something" about it that they didn't like. What they didn't like.... was the price.  Letting it cool off and bringing it back fresh in the spring won’t work.  Buyers know everything about the history of the sale these days. They ask “How long? How many times? How many reductions?” What they want is priced right with no fixing-up required. But if you do decide to spend money on the house (you needed a new septic, or the well had to be fixed, or you installed a new kitchen to help sell), whatever you do, don’t be tempted to raise your price to recoup the costs. Kiss Of Death.

Simply put, if it’s not on the market it won’t sell. But continuing to do what clearly isn’t working will continue to reap the same results. Now is the time to really switch it up – Price it right and market it well.

6. Your home won’t sell if you insist on being a salesperson. When you go clothes shopping how annoying is it when the salesperson keeps asking “How can I help you?” How long do you stay? Not long – and that’s exactly what happens when homeowners start following buyers around, pointing out the switch under the sink that operates the garden lights, or the great job you did of installing California closets.  Buyers will walk as fast as you will allow, around the house, thank you, and tell you your house is lovely, the best they have seen, expect an offer later in the day…and you never see or hear from them again.

Today’s real buyer has drawn up their short list and basically just wants to narrow it down by first impressions on their first viewing. Typically they will visit 5-7 homes in one day. They want to spend time together considering many things. “I hate the kitchen, but if we knock down that wall and extend into the formal dining room we don’t need, it could be great.” Or “What were they thinking with this carpet and that wall covering???” If the seller is there, none of this deliberation takes place. If you get to a second viewing and they have questions, they will ask their Realtor to get them answered and you may well be asked to meet with the buyers at that time. The same thing goes for having your Realtor show them around. As your Realtor is representing you and not the buyer, all that they can do is open the door and stand back. The buyers are not their client, but the other Realtor’s. Which brings me to the touchy subject of access availability …

7.Your home won’t sell if it’s not available to buyers. Seems obvious somehow, but I can never quite believe how difficult some sellers make it for buyers to actually physically get inside the home, and that goes for some selling agents too. Easy and un-complicated access is quite literally the key to a sale. If a buyer can’t see the house, how can he buy it? After all it’s no longer your home, it became a commodity when you put it on the market and buyers will expect to be able to view it at all times, (within reason.)

We are now blessed with electronic lockboxes which are mini safes fitted with infra-red sensors that communicate with smart phones, Blackberries, Androids etc. If you are not a licensed Realtor, you can’t gain access. If you are a licensed Realtor, you can’t gain access without an appointment (unless otherwise agreed upon with the seller.) When buyers arrive having made an appointment in advance, you will have left 15 minutes or so earlier, hopefully with Fido and Tigger in tow.  After they leave, a message is sent electronically to the listing agent’s phone and another to the buyer’s agent to request feedback. Feedback is a very important piece of the equation of selling in this market. You need to know what both the buyer and the agent thought of the house, location and price. By using this system you will know the time, who, and what the buyers thought when they visited. Other scenarios are too scary to contemplate. We have the technology. Let’s use it.

And finally back to point number one…

What do you do if you do get an offer that all parties agree upon, inspections are done and contracts are signed, then several weeks later the banks appraiser declares that the value is less than that agreed upon? You have three options. Give the buyers back their check and go back to market in the hope that the next buyer will have a bank with a different appraiser and agree to your price. (Not likely.) Or, give the buyers their check back and take it off the market and pray for higher prices. (That will take a long, long, time.) Or drop the price according to the appraisal and close the deal.

If you want to sell your house, the responsibility is mostly yours. Pretend you are the buyer. Would you buy it knowing what else is available?  Educate yourself, go and view the competition.  Do the right things, make it shine and be realistic about price.

Houses are selling, but for only for the right reasons.

(C) 2011 Vanessa Saunders -Can be reproduced only with credit and link back given to author.