Westchester County Home News: HOW TO SELL A HOUSE THAT DIDN'T SELL

If your home has just come off the market and hasn't sold, don't be discouraged. The reason it didn't sell may have nothing to do with your home or the market. In reality, your home may have been one of the more desirable properties for sale. If your listing has expired and you still want results, before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and review your situation.

Q. Where should I begin?

A. Start by making a commitment to do what it takes to market your house to get it sold. With the right system, the home sale you want is still well within reach.

Q. Why didn't my home sell?

A. Review your previous selling plan and you'll discover that an expired listing usually reflects a problem in one or more of these four major areas:

1. Teamwork,

2. Pricing,

3. Condition of Your Home, and

4. Marketing.

4 IMPORTANT POINTS THAT WILL GET YOUR HOUSE SOLD

1. Teamwork.

Your home is a major financial investment, and your relationship with your Realtor® should be a full partnership where your needs and wishes are heard, and you receive detailed and dependable feedback on the progress of your sale. Your agent has a responsibility to source this feedback from the agents who have shown your home, and to communicate this to you so together you can make the right decisions about what to do next. How well did this occur the last time you had your home up for sale?

2. Pricing - Did price work for or against you?

The "right" price depends on market conditions, competition and the condition of your home. Pricing it too high is as dangerous as pricing it too low. If your home doesn't compare favorably with others in the price range you've set, you won't be taken seriously by prospects or agents.

You'll get the facts when you see the statistics! To help you to establish a realistic selling price for your home, ask your agent to provide you with an up-to-date competitive market analysis to give you:

* a review of comparable homes recently sold or currently for

sale,

* an idea of how long other homes have been listed, in order to

calculate an average time in which a home can sell in today's

market,

* a review of homes whose listings have expired, to understand

what issues were at play.

Note: There is no mention of how much you paid for your home or its improvements. Like any other investment, the market value is determined by what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept.

3. Condition of Your Home - Show Case Quality!

Is your house someone else's idea of a dream home? When buyers enter are they inspired? Do they think, "I love this house!"

Remember, the decision to buy a home is based on emotion, not logic.

A house in move-in condition invites a sale. You need to

consider:

* fixing all the little squeaks and cracks

* keeping it clean for all showings

* making it uncluttered

* brightening it up

* what your home shows like from the street (concentrating on outside curb appeal)

Plus - Consider taking care of major items, such having your home painted. Offering an allowance to your prospective buyers, so they can have painting completed is not the same as having done it for them. Now, as they're trying to imagine what that new paint job will look like, they may also be discounting the price even further because of the less-than-perfect look of those walls.

Remember... A house that presents well, sells for the best price because it outshines the competition. Ask your agent if they can arrange a no-obligation inspection of your home to help you assess the above.

4. Marketing Your Home To Sell!

One of the first steps in your marketing plan involves finding an agent who will best represent you. When interviewing agents, test and compare their knowledge and ask each to demonstrate how they will market your home to buyers. Compare, too, how much money each spends on advertising the homes s/he lists, in what media (newspaper, magazine, etc.) and the effectiveness of one medium over the other. Remember, it's not just how much they spend, but how they spend it.

Say goodbye to any real estate agents using old, traditional methods to sell your home because they don't work in today's market! To be competitive in today's marketplace, agents who use new and innovative, non-traditional marketing approaches are the ones who are getting more homes sold fast and for top dollar.

EVERY SELLER CAN BOOST A PROPERTY'S EXPOSURE!

1. Make your house easy to show.

* Consider installing a lock box.

* Allow showing times that are convenient to buyers.

2. Use a "For Sale" sign, where permitted.

3. Create a Good First Impression by:

* depersonalizing furnishings and decor so prospects can

visualize themselves in your home;

* emphasizing curb appeal;

* keeping large pets at a distance.

REMEMBER - The next prospects who visit your home may be your buyers - be ready for them!

GET THE BEST RESULTS

To get the best results when selling your home, you need to team up with your agent to develop a powerful marketing plan that exposes your property to the widest possible pool of prospective buyers.

Not all agents are the same. The relationship between you and your agent can make the difference between selling your home fast, or not selling it all.

BUYERS ARE OUT THERE - AND THEY WILL COME!

Before you put your home back on the market, remember:

1. Effective communication is vital between you and your agent.

2. Price your home according to market conditions, competition

and the condition of your house.

3. Be sure your house is in showcase, buyer ready-condition.

4. Have an innovative marketing plan firmly set in place.