Selling Home
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Related Articles Speed your home sale with these fast fix-ups The hidden financial truth about remodeling Smart -- and stupid -- ways to pay for your remodel The Basics 6 reasons your home isn't selling advertisement So, you're in agony because your home has languished on the market week after week. Here are some culprits that may be keeping buyers away in droves. By Bankrate.com Has your lawn grown up around that "For Sale" sign? Have the wasps moved into the lock box on your front door? Did you just receive an invitation to your real estate agent's retirement party? If so, chances are your home sale fizzled. Here are the six most-common reasons why homes don't sell and what you can do about it. Your home is overpriced Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, "There's a buyer for every home." But they often leave off the qualifier: "at the buyer's price." Find a loan that's right for you at the Loan Center The fact is that buyers, not sellers, ultimately determine the market value of a home. You can ask for the moon and set your listing price well above comparable properties in your neighborhood, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller, to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth. Overpricing is the most common reason homes don't sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a process that often works against you. Here's why: Most real estate agents, and hence most qualified buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced by as little as 5%, it will be duly noted and interest in your property will wane, especially if you show no intention of coming off your asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you manage to find a buyer at your inflated asking price, the property may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart. Your real estate agent may have approved or even suggested the inflated asking price to secure your listing. Conversely, other agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help sell their own listings. ("Here's what they are asking. Now would you like to take a second look at that first house I showed you?") "If you have a house that really should be priced at $200,000 and you've got it listed at $260,000, you are trying to compete against homes that really are worth close to $300,000 and all of a sudden your home really is not competing well," says Jeri Fisher of Jeri Fisher Real Estate in Missoula, Mont. "You want to compete with what is available out there among homes similar to yours." If your home remains on the market for too long, agents and buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, perhaps more serious reasons why it isn't selling. "It becomes shopworn, the same as a jacket hanging in the store week after week," says Fisher. "People are aware that it has been on the market a long time and agents stop showing it." Your home doesn't 'show' well Your home is competing against shiny new houses in those pristine subdivisions out in the suburbs with their attractive prices, incentives and community amenities. Face it: Even the best old house needs a little makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer. The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a few attractive window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila! The place may look good enough to reconsider. A good real estate agent can advise you on where your time and money are best spent. "Price and condition are two things that the seller can do something about," says Fisher. "I always give people my 'honey-do' list. I think paint is probably a seller's best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh. If it's time to paint, it's time to paint. It's the best return on investment." You're in a bad location Nothing has a greater effect on your home's value than its location. Your humble abode might be worth a king's ransom were it located in Palm Beach, Aspen or San Francisco. It might even jump thousands in value just two streets over in the next (and far superior) school district. "If you're in one of the higher-ranked schools around here, you're going to add $50,000 to $100,000 to the price of the same house," says Lenn Harley, a broker with Homefinders.com Inc. in Maryland and Virginia. The point is, location rules in real estate. If your home's location is less than desirable, your options are somewhat limited. A good real estate agent will do his best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise. The best way to compensate for a poor location is to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such as seller financing or a lease option with rent credit. You have a lousy listing agent Yep, they exist: Real estate agents who mislead, misfire and misbehave. Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time, money and the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7. The agent from hell will allow you to overprice your home ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with me!"), not market it properly, fail to screen for qualified buyers, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell their own listing, they don't have to split the commission) and keep you totally in the dark throughout the process. What's more, if your agent is abrasive, arrogant or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers. You are battling competition or market conditions We've all heard the terms "buyer's market" and "seller's market." In real estate, market conditions are affected by any number of external forces, some of them predictable (the weather, sort of), some of them unpredictable (the local economy, interest rates, public optimism or pessimism). In a "hot" or seller's market, homes go fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered more than your listing price. But in a "flat," "cold" or buyer's market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated (i.e., paying on two mortgages). If you're trying to sell in a flat market, you're not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for less than top dollar, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings once again in your favor. You have ineffective marketing Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing with the local multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer. Today's top performers launch a multilevel marketing plan that includes listing tours for area agents, newspaper and even TV ads, weekend open houses, listing fliers and placements in local real estate publications. Computers and the Internet also have changed the face of real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, today more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for house hunting. The best real estate agents are computer-savvy. They have your listing in color on their laptops to show clients and communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working with out-of-town buyers. Suffice it to say that if your real estate agent isn't listing your home online through the company Web site as well as with the local MLS, you may not be getting the exposure necessary to find a buyer. "There are those who just put the listing in the multiple and pray it will sell and those that put a lot of effort into marketing their listings," says Fisher. "Unfortunately, with this weird system of compensation we have, they all get paid the same, whether they know nothing or have many years of experience." 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Harris County Clerk's Office -- Welcome ! The Harris County Clerk's office is a State Constitutional office with the duties of County Clerk varying somewhat in each of Texas’ 254 counties. In Harris County, the County Clerk wears three hats. As clerk, she maintains the records of Commissioners' Court, County Probate Courts, and County Civil Courts at Law. As a recorder, she is responsible for real property records including state and federal tax liens; vital statistics records such as marriage licenses; assumed names; and uniform commercial code records. As chief election official for the third largest county in the country, she administers county and state elections and also contracts for election services for political parties and smaller jurisdictions such as the City of Houston. The current County Clerk, Beverly Kaufman, was appointed to the office on March 11, 1994 and was elected to a full four-year term in November 1994 by sixty-one percent (61.3%) and re-elected in 1998 and 2002. She employs 311 regular employees and an additional 400 temporary employees during county election cycles. Her annual budget is approximately $24 million and she collects revenues through fees for numerous services provided such as property record filings, issuing marriage licenses, and processing court documents. The fees are used for a wide array of improvements including record preservation efforts to protect many of the county’s older documents. Mrs. Kaufman is also responsible for registry accounts created by probate and county court orders. Current total registry accounts average $70 million but have been known to reach the $100 million level during peak county condemnation periods for infrastructure expansion. The Harris County Clerk's Main Office is located in the Harris County Administration Building at 1001 Preston, on the 4th floor. Mailing Address BEVERLY KAUFMAN HARRIS COUNTY CLERK P.O. BOX 1525 HOUSTON, TEXAS 77251-1525
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Selling Home
Preparing Your Sellers for Home Showings - Real Estate Agent Tips You are here: About > Home & Garden > Home Buying / Selling > Real Estate Careers > Presentation Skills > Listings > Preparing Your Sellers for Home Showings - Real Estate Agent Tips Home & Garden Home Buying / Selling Essentials 10 Things Home Buyers Shouldn't Do Best Tips for First Time Home Buyers "Must-Do" Tasks Before You Sell How to Buy a Home, Step by Step For Sale by Owner Advice Articles & Resources How To Buy a Home How To Sell a House Celebrity & Historic Credit Reports & Scores Design & Remodel Home Maintenance Inspections & Appraisals Investing & Foreclosures Modular & Manufactured Mold, Radon, Lead, etc. Mortgage Advice Moving & Relocation Real Estate Careers Real Estate For Sale Vacation Homes Buyer's Guide Before You Buy Top Picks Home Buying Books Foreclosure Books Mortgage Books Product Reviews Forums Help FREE Newsletter Sign Up Now for the Home Buying / Selling newsletter! See Online Courses Search Home Buying / Selling Stay up to date! Email to a friend Print this page Suggested Reading Interviewing for a Real Estate Position How To Calculate Real Estate Commissions Getting the House House Ready for Showings Suggested Reading Real Estate Appraisal Methods Fair Housing Issues for Real Estate Pros How To Measure a Home's Square Footage Recent Discussions Excellent credit, no savings- help!! Buying an out of state home ? Re-financing... Related Blogs Mortgage Fraud Blog The Real Estate Blog The Money Pit Most Popular Modular and Manufactured Homes Finding Your Best Place to ... Home Buying Don'ts First Time Home Buyer Tips Before You Sell Your Home What's Hot Coping with Unethical People How To Buy Land Real Estate Appraisal Before You Buy a Log Home Package Home Buying / Selling - GuideReviews Related Topics Home Repair Architecture Credit / Debt Management Housekeeping Landscaping Preparing Your Sellers for Home Showings From Janet Wickell , Your Guide to Home Buying / Selling . FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! Introduce sellers to the realities of showing their home You've already talked with your sellers about the physical work involved to get a home ready to show, but have you mentioned other events that may take place while the house is on the market? Giving home sellers a basic education in Buyers 101 will help prepare them for the realities of showing their house.
Be Ready to Show at All Times
Sellers should be aware that same-day and even last-minute requests for showings are common, so a seller with a '24 hour notice to show' stipulation often cuts himself out of a good chunk of the buying market. The only standard hefty lag time that should be necessary is when you must give ample notice to a tenant.
Once a house gets tagged difficult to show by agents, you won't receive as many calls to show it. If sellers choose to make showings difficult, be sure to tell them now that it will cut down on showings--and fewer showings equals fewer potential buyers.
Keep it Flexible
Explain to your home sellers that most agents do try to arrive within the scheduled showing time, but sometimes it isn't possible. They may get stuck in traffic, or the house they saw prior to your showing took longer than expected. It happens, and sometimes it happens too late to be fixed by a phone call.
Encourage sellers to stay away from home a little longer than they think is necessary, just to make sure they don't interrupt a showing.
Sellers Who Want to Be Present
This is nearly always a bad idea. Sellers think agents and buyers won't be able to find everything, that they must be there to point out important features. Truthfully, most just want to be present to see buyer reaction firsthand.
Sellers should be aware that at the very least buyers feel uncomfortable when they are present, and that it can actually kill a sale. Buyers often won't even open closet or cabinet doors when the seller is home, and when they cannot view a house comfortably, they'll hurry up and move on to the next one.
Sellers want to talk, and not just about the house. You never know when a buyer will be turned off by the mood of the seller, or by a statement the seller makes. Buyers are there to look at the house, not chit chat about hobbies or the weather or worse--politics and other controversial topics.
If sellers must be home during a showing, counsel them to go outside or stay put in one location, not wander around with the agent and buyers.
Sellers Who Want YOU To Be Present for All Showings
If you're selling a large estate or complicated property, it might be the norm to plan on being present for all showings, but it's not necessary or smart for the typical house.
Explain that other agents generally feel uncomfortable with the selling agent hanging around, listening to and participating in conversations with potential buyers. If the other agent is representing the buyers as a buyer's agent, she won't be free to have open discussions about the house in front of you.
There's another negative that may be more important: busy agents don't have time to work around your schedule. Requiring the listing agent to be present for all showings is another way to give the house that difficult to show reputation.
If your sellers are worried about theft of small items, they should store them away . Packing up collections and small personal items is part of the process they should have already gone through to prepare the house for showings .
Pets Must Be Controlled
Pets should be out of the house during showings, especially large dogs, since many people are afraid of them. A gruff bark coming from inside the house is enough to make some home buyers turn around at the front door.
If there are pet odors, talking with your seller about the subject can be tricky, because most people are not aware of odors in their own home. You may need to conjure up your best be-tactful mode to deal with that subject, but it must be dealt with. Your sellers don't want buyers to remember the home as the house that smells .
Gaining Seller Cooperation
Share showing information in a 'did you know this about buyers' tone, rather than simply telling a seller what he must do. Explaining why these steps are important helps sellers realize that it's in their best interests to comply.
Consider putting showing advice on paper in an easy-to-read format. Give the seller a day or so to digest the information, then ask if he has any questions about the information.
Show that you respect the seller's opinions by asking what he thinks are the home's best features, then spotlight those features in a flyer or brochure that can be left on a table for prospective buyers.
Sellers usually just want to help. It's up to you to figure out a way to give them a role in the sales process, one that is truly helpful and that won't have a negative impact on showings. Important disclaimer information about this About site. Topic Index | Email to a Friend Our Story | Be a Guide | Advertising Info | Work at About | Site Map | Icons | Help User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy ©2005 About, Inc., A part of the New York Times Company . All rights reserved. Around About Oprah's Life Vacation Ideas Shop Safely Online VIDEO: Craft Rooms VIDEO: Christmas Traditions What's Hot Coping with Unethical People How To Buy Land Real Estate Appraisal Before You Buy a Log Home Package Home Buying / Selling - GuideReviews