The Top Five Reasons Your House Has Not Sold

The Top Five Reasons Your House Has Not Sold

Why won’t your house sell?
One day a woman named Mary called to ask for real estate advice. She started by saying that her house had been listed for four months with another agent. Activity was slow and she had no offers. When she questioned her agent, she was simply told, "Well, selling a house takes time."
Quite rightly, that answer didn’t satisfy Mary.
Nationwide research shows that there are five main reasons real estate doesn't sell in a timely fashion. Scroll down to explore why:


The Initial Interviews
Before listing her house, Mary had wisely interviewed three agents. This is a smart move, even if the first or second agent makes you feel comfortable enough to list your house immediately. Without multiple interviews, you have no way to compare each agent’s marketing plans, including their price recommendations.
Each agent had provided Mary with a written price opinion, which is called a comparable market analysis (CMA). Two agents had recommended a similar price, and the other had suggested a price that was a bit higher.
Mary said one of the agents told her she could get $20,000 more than the other two agents had quoted. The agent was so enthusiastic, believable and convincing that Mary really believed this agent. After all what did Mary know about market values? This agent was an expert.


1)"Buying" a Listing
What probably happened is the agent "bought" the listing by quoting Mary a higher price during her presentation, knowing that Mary’s house would never really sell at that price. The agent intended to wait a few weeks before convincing Mary to lower the price in order to get the listing. This is commonly called "buying a listing."

Mary’s situation demonstrates a valuable lesson for sellers: if one agent quotes you a significantly higher price than the others, that agent is probably not the right one for you. The market doesn’t lie, so each agent you deal with should arrive at a very close figure. If you list your house higher than market value then drop your price later, your house will be "market worn." Your final selling price will probably be lower than if you had listed it correctly in the beginning.

Let’s say you list your house for $150,000 but it’s really worth $140,000. Buyers in the $140,000 range will never see your house because they’re not looking at $150,000 houses. They can’t afford them. And $150,000 buyers will be comparing your house to others that are truly worth that price, meaning those houses will sell while yours just sits there. In fact, many agents will show an overpriced house for comparison when they’re trying to sell listings that are more realistically priced.

Why do Some Owners Overprice?
Often it’s on their agent’s advice, which we just discussed. Another reason they’ll overprice is based on past value. Assuming a house appraised for $140,000 three years ago, they’ll add an annual appreciation rate of three, four or five percent to come up with $150,000 or more. Doesn't this make sense? But that’s not valid reasoning. I’ve never found any research to indicate that a home is guaranteed to appreciate.
Your house is worth what today’s market says it’s worth, regardless of what the house was worth one, two, five or ten years ago.

Comparing Home Prices to Stocks
Houses are just like stock. Hopefully they go up in value. Sometimes they come down. If you paid fifty dollars for one share of IBM stock two years ago and it’s valued at $30 per share now, would you expect to sell your stock at what you paid ($50) plus a profit? Of course not. Well your house is the same. A property’s value is determined by today’s market, not by yesterday’s value plus appreciation.
Mary’s price was too high. That’s the number one reason it hadn’t sold after four months.

2) Condition
After concluding that Mary had her house listed too high, the next step was to ask about the condition of the home. She said it was in pretty good shape, but that it was hard to keep it clean with a family and that it needed painting. She thought she could avoid that expense in such a good market. Mary couldn’t have been more wrong.

Buyers are looking for model-home conditions. The paint inside and out should be near perfect. Everything should be kept perfectly straight and orderly. In fact, a buyer should be able to move into her house without doing anything, including cleaning the carpet.

Even if Mary received an offer, the condition of the house would cause the buyer to offer less than market value. Mary needs to take the house off the market and paint it inside and out, cleaning everything, including the carpets, windows and light fixtures.

Although it may be difficult, a seller really has to walk through the house as if they are a potential buyer, being very critical and asking whether they would purchase a home in this condition. If you don’t feel you can do that, hire an interior designer to do it for you and to suggest what needs to be done to prepare your house for the most important show time you’ll ever have.
Once Mary had completed the recommendations above, the next step would be to invite all three agents back to visit and do another market analysis. She might even invite another agent that had impressed her during the previous listing period.

Another common question that many sellers ask, “ what do I do about pets, especially my dog”? The results of a recent survey stated that 60 percent of all people are extremely scared or highly allergic to animals. What does this mean to a seller? Sometimes you need to make other arrangements for your family’s pets. Of course, these pets are family members and you probably don’t want to board your pet. That’s okay, a simple solution where dogs are concerned is to take them for a walk or put them in the backyard (if you have one) during the showing.
With dogs, just the liability factor is huge. Your pet is the friendliest around but some child may come in pull your dog’s tail, causing your pet to react by biting this child. Then you have problems. Therefore, its best let a friend keep him, or have some relatives take care or take him outside or to board your pet, during this important stage of selling your home.
The things that make your house stand out the most is price and condition.

3) Location

The third reason a house won’t sell in a good market is location. Such things as undesirable schools, a higher crime rate, filthy/messy neighbors, a busy road, or noise pollution (i.e. beside a busy railroad track or under a flight pattern) can mark a bad location.
Mary’s location was good. There were no real negatives to affect her sale.
However, if your house is located poorly, the only thing that can compensate is a lower listing price. In order to sell a house in a bad location, the owner would have to ask for less than what similar homes in more desirable areas have sold for.

A good REALTOR will be savvy enough to recommend a good strategy and overcome a bad location.

4) The Listing Agent’s Reputation
The fourth reason a house won’t sell in a great market like we’re currently experiencing is the listing agent.

Your listing agent could cause huge problems if he or she is hard to get along with or difficult to work with. That’s something you can’t really anticipate, but that kind of attitude in an agent can make other REALTORS not want to show his or her listings unless they simply can’t find anything else to show potential buyers -- even though such behavior goes against the REALTOR’s code of ethics. It’s only natural not to want to work with someone who has a bad attitude or a condescending nature.

Agents who are rude, arrogant, and difficult to work with will not have as many showings as an agent who is cooperative and enthusiastic.
Many times an buyer’s agent will see a certain listing agent’s name on the multiple listing sheet and immediately take that house out of their showing schedule. Just because an agent is a top producer in your area does not guarantee that he/she has the respect of other agents in town. The only way to guard yourself against this type of discrimination is to check out the reputation of the agent you are thinking about hiring or get personal referrals.

5)Marketing Plan

Aggressive Marketing Plan

If your house won’t sell but you feel the house is priced right, in good condition, in a good location, and your agent is easy to work with, the marketing plan is probably the problem. Gone are the days when all the agent had to do was put a sign on your yard, place your house on the multiple listing service, run an ad, and wait for the offers to come in.



6) Lock-Box & Ease of Showing
That brings us to ease of showing. If you don’t allow your agent to put a lock box on your door you will miss out on a huge part of the showing market. Let me explain why and a step-by-step process of a typical showing agent.

Here’s how that agents works: when an agent has a couple coming in from out of town to buy a house, the agent will prepare a list of possible properties to show the couple. The properties are based on a previous in-depth interview to determine the couple’s needs. After searching the MLS computer, the agent will print a list of possible properties. Your House May Be on the "B" List

If the agent can’t make an appointment to show your house because you are not home, you’re going to miss the first few rounds of showings because your house is going to be placed on the "B" pile. If the buyers don’t find a house that meets their needs in the first few days, the agent goes back to the second pile of properties and starts showing the ones without lock boxes or houses whose instructions demand the homeowner be present at all times.

Suppose this couple falls in love with a house on the first few rounds of showings. Even if you have the best house in the city in the best condition -- you’ve lost that sale. So for every showing you do get, just think of how many you’ve missed. Allow your agent to put a lock box on your house and agents will be able to show your home when their client is available, even if you are not home. You’ll get much better traffic and a quicker sale that way.
Conclusion

As this article is being written, Mary is painting her house, cleaning, removing extra clothes from the closet, taking out bulky furniture and following a rigid checklist to de-personalize her house. The next step is to have her agent come back out and re-evaluate the listing price. Plus, she could call back the original agents she passed on. After all, they may have provided good guidance to begin with.
To recap, the top six reasons a house won’t sell today are: Pricing;Condition; Location; Listing Agent’s Reputation & Marketing Plan.

St Clair Artwalk and Studio Tours Sept 27 and 28th

St Clair Artwalk and Studio Tour takes place all around the St Clair Ave W area. This is year 5. Artwalk features local area residents showcasing their art, music and literary talents. Visit www.stclair-artwalk.org

Be sure to take in the Jazz concert on September 25th at St. Mathews Church, 611 St Clair Ave W. starting at 7:00 pm. You can get tickets at ticketweb.ca or at Ellington's cafe.

Artists will open their studios from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
There is an out door art market at the corner of Wychwood Ave and St Clair W. with 25+ artisits are displaying.

St Matthews United Church (on the south side) at 729 St Clair W will host the emerging artists.

St Michaels & All Angels Church (on the south side at Wychwood) at 611 St Clair Ave W. will be home to the outdoor main stage with great sounds of entertainment.

Business along St Clair West will become art galleries showcasing many community artisits.

Please visit Diane Plant's exhibit at 635 St Clair Ave W in the Maple Paints Store. I will be featuring my art "Mini Chairs on Canvas." This is a collection of whimsical, brightly painted mini chairs on canvas arranged in contemporary abstract designs.

Toronto Residential Real Estate - Do We Always Expect Multiple Offers?

Do homebuyers and sellers in the Toronto real estate market believe that real estate negotiations are all about multiple offers? It appears that way when I talk to clients. This, however, is not the real world of real estate negotiating. The historical way of trying to make a purchase or sale is by calm discussion between both parties to agree upon a price that is satisfactory to both.

The Toronto market, since the middle of the late 90's took a great upward turn, gathering momentum yearly and almost every home in the central core had a delayed offer date, creating a frenetic market for the sellers and buyers. Few homes had a transaction with only one offer.

When I speak with buyers now, they want to wait to make a purchase because they feel that prices are going down. They do not feel this pent up anxiety to have to make a purchase immediately because the market is too calm for them, something they are not used to. Many buyers today have had only one experience in making an offer, that of bidding on a home that has tough competition, boosting the price way over asking. This left one extremely happy seller, only one happy buyer and many who were disappointed.

This is a great time to make a purchase. Interest rates remain low and stable. You can get a home inspection in a timely manner and make a knowledgeable decision based on excellent information. Negotiations between the seller and buyer are more in tune with a conventional market and purchasing a home now is usually at or below the asking price.

Last year properties were under priced to attract enormous competition. The right asking price for a property is critical this year because most houses are no longer attracting multiple offers. Sellers are advised to list at a price they would be willing to accept or use a realistic starting point for negotiations with a prospective buyer.

The Toronto real estate market is still healthy. Buyers and sellers must not get the impression that we are suffering the same market conditions as our neighbours south of the border. One thing we can say for our Government - we don't allow a zero percent down payment. The federal government has announced reforms aimed at avoiding a U.S. style housing price bubble. Starting Oct. 15, the Finance Department will stop guaranteeing 40-year mortgages and mortgage loans with no down payment. Unconventional mortgages under 20% down are insured through CMHC (Central Mortgage and Housing) and all buyers must qualify for a mortgage based on their income and debt ratio (unless using private financing).

Maureen O'Neill of the Toronto Real Estate Board says "The Toronto Real estate market has experienced a slow down in actual numbers of 7,806 sales of single-family dwellings sold from that of July 2007 figure of 8,912 but the sales were up 10 per cent from July 2006 (7,082).

Furthermore, the sales decrease in July 2008 from July of 2007 was distributed unevenly across the GTA. Within the City of Toronto, the 3,132 sales recorded in July 2008 is down 14 per cent from last July's 3,640 figure but up 10 per cent from the 2,852 sales recorded in July 2006. Comparing July 2007 with July 2006, a period before the Land Transfer tax went into effect in Toronto, sales increased 28 per cent.

Overall, the GTA average price rose just over one per cent in July 2008 over July 2007 to $371,427 from $366,012, and a nine per cent increase from $342,034 recorded during July 2006.
Once again, price movements differed depending on the part of the GTA involved.

Within City of Toronto boundaries, the increase was marginal (under one per cent) to $395,342 in July 2008 from $395,044 in July 2007 and up 10 per cent from the $360,409 recorded during July 2006".

The Toronto real estate market is strong and now is a great time to buy.

Diane Plant is a Broker with Forest Hill Real Estate, serving the Greater Toronto Area since 1988. She is in partnership with her son, Jeremy Plant, forming Team Plant. Get FREE membership to Team Plant's Preferred Buyer's Club by visiting our website http://www.team-plant.com and click on Buyers.

I invite all comments at diane@team-plant.com

Toronto Residential Sales for August 2008

GTA Resale Housing Remains Steady Throughout Summer Months


September 4, 2008 -- The Greater Toronto resale housing market closed out the last full month of summer at a steady pace, Toronto Real Estate Board President Maureen O’Neill reported today.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) average price increased one per cent, to $364,886 when compared to last August’s figure of $361,890. Compared to the $338,192 figure recorded two years ago though, the average GTA has increased eight per cent.

In the City of Toronto the average price declined one per cent to $377,990 from last August’s $381,681. Compared to the August 2006 figure of $344,419 however, the average price in the City of Toronto has increased 10 per cent.

In the 905 Region the average price increased two per cent to $356,657 from last August’s $348,563. Compared to the August 2006 figure of $334,245 the average price in the 905 Region has increased seven per cent.

“These healthy figures substantiate that when undertaken as a long term investment, buying a home is one of the smartest financial moves you can make,” said Ms. O’Neill.

With 6,318 transactions recorded last month, sales in the GTA declined 22 per cent compared to the record August 2007 figure of 8,059. Volumes were off just nine per cent however, from the 6,976 sales recorded in August 2006.

In the City of Toronto, there were 2,437 sales in August, a 25 per cent decline from the 3,243 transactions recorded a year ago.

Compared to the 2,706 sales recorded in August 2006 though, this represents a 10 per cent decline. Sales increased 20 per cent between August 2006 and August 2007