If a home stays on the market for too long it is often because of overpricing. However, achieving the sale is not as easy as simply lowering the price.
Although many factors can be considered, says Tony Clarke, Managing Director of the Rawson Property Group, the most likely culprit is usually the price. He says this point also tends to be overlooked often. “The plain truth is that virtually any home will sell if it is correctly priced.” If the price makes allowance for the negative factors which the estate agent has identified and the price is in line with the achieved sale prices of other homes in the area, there is no reason why it should 'stick' on the market, he says. What can a seller do when he finds that his home, after being on the market for four to six months, has still not found a buyer?
“The answers may be painful, but there are really only two choices,” says Clarke.
The first option is that the seller drop his price to a new lower level and possibly look for an estate agent that understands the market in the area better. However, the seller must be warned that at this stage the home is almost certain to have acquired an unfortunate reputation in the neighbourhood with buyers - many of whom would have rejected it due to its unrealistic price, and it will now have to find new buyers. “This almost certainly involves lowering the price to below its true market value,” he says.
The second option open to the seller, if he has not completely given up the idea of selling, is to withdraw the home from the market for, say, four to six months. Before the house is relaunched, a thorough clean-up must be done so that the estate agent can sell the property in its best condition, he says.
Money might have to be spent on repainting, recarpeting, replumbing or relighting of the property. Also, he says any money spent on replanting the garden will, it has been proved, be worthwhile and will raise the offers. Clarke says once the rejuvenation of the home has been completed, new photographs will have to be taken and new advertising be done, possibly stressing the improvements carried out.
“It is quite likely at this stage that the home will then achieve its quoted price or come close to it, provided once again that this is wholly realistic,” says Clarke.