Shouldn’t my House Have Sold by now? Have I Chosen the Wrong Broker?

Copyright © 2014- 2019  AUTHOR: Paul R. Marino, REALTOR®, e-Pro®

 

Selling and buying real estate is really not all that different than any other type of consumer purchase. Apart from the price tag being considerably larger, it's basically all the same, whether you're buying a $350 lawn mower, or a $3.5M oceanfront estate. The seller wants a high price, and the buyer wants a low price. It's a concept that's been around since the dawn of man.

 

 

However, when buying or selling a lawn mower, there's not a whole lot of emotional connection to the sale, by either party. The seller figures...this is the price, take it or leave it. And the buyer figures, it they don't come down to $325, I'll just walk away and buy the exact same machine somewhere else.  Unlike selling a lawn mower however, there's a whole lot of emotion involved, and herein lies the problem.

 

 

To a home seller, their house is their castle. They are understandably emotionally connected to the property, as it's been part of their life, holding all kinds of cherished memories and thoughts of how much money they poured into the house over the years, and how they'd like to get that money back. To a home buyer however, you're just another house on the market. Not to say they will never become emotionally connected, but at least in the beginning, a buyer will never look at your home the way the seller does.

 

 

Sellers hitting the market are usually excited to be listing, and expectations typically run high. However, it is important to understand that as a rule, real estate is a highly illiquid asset. Meaning, don't expect a house to fly off the shelf like a two for one jean sale at Walmart. Depending on your market, selling real estate can take time.

 

 

It's important for home sellers to understand that unlike the old days (pre-Internet), buyers have access to the exact same inventory of housing as brokers and agents do. In other words, a broker has no better information than the average consumer with a smart phone or laptop. And because this is true, buyers no longer pull into a real estate office parking lot, waltz in, and ask: "What do you have for sale?". It simply isn't done. Buyers like convenience, and as such, they are hitting the various property search websites that hold the comprehensive set of housing inventory, all while sipping a latte at Starbucks. I would venture to say, that if a buyer has searched the websites of Realtor and Zillow, they have effectively seen 97%+ of all the available homes on the market. Does this mean they might possibly miss some "fall through the crack" home seller out there? Of course not. But the number of missed opportunities is exceedingly small.

 

 

Because buyers today are sophisticated, and track property search websites very carefully, they know when a property comes on the market, and they know if something is overpriced. So, if they're searching for a 2,000sf Cape Cod in a subdivision, and after months of checking, they generally see prices in the $375K to $425K ask price range, they know something's not quite right when you pop up with your house, asking $499K for nearly the exact same housing.

 

 

While I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, there are only two things that sell a house. Price and exposure. Nothing else matters. EXAMPLE: I recently sent a home seller an activity report for the Realtor.com website. You should know that website traffic analytics are very sophisticated these days. Webmasters can seen how many times someone visits a site, how long they linger there, what pictures they click on, etc. The details are mind numbing. The summary report of which I speak will tell a home seller how many times a home buyer saw a particular listing displayed in a list, and a second number tells them how many times a prospective buyer saw the house in a list, and something caused them to click the listing, showing them housing details and photos. In this particular example, a grand total of 21,512 (Twenty One Thousand Five Hundred Twelve) home searchers saw their home in a list. And of this figure, 623 individuals were interested enough to pull up the listing and look at the details, or about 2.9% (this percentage figure is typical by the way).

 

 

So, if 623 prospective home buyers pull up your listing (on just one website), look at all the beautiful pictures, and well crafted description, and not a single one has asked for a showing, it can only mean one thing. Without providing the obvious reason in bold, capital letters, I will calmly outline the explanation: The price is too high. Ouch. Sorry. I know you don't want to hear that. The market never lies. How else could you possibly explain why not a single person has asked for a showing? There simply is no other explanation.

 

 

Switching brokers will not do a single thing to boost your activity levels. Feeling frustrated, some sellers conclude: "It must be because I am not listed with a big name, national brokerage." FACT: Buyers could care less who the home is listed with. Buyers want houses, not brokers. How do we know this? A mountain of successful home sellers that have sold their home using the brokerage services of Landfall Properties, LLC, saving themselves $14,413 on average. If you want to maximize your net seller proceeds, look yourself squarely in the mirror and examine the facts. Set your emotions aside. Don't be swayed by a "dog and pony show" presentation that is all about fluff, and very little about the realities of the marketplace.