Struggling to sell?

It is easy to get carried away by hot auction success stories we see in Sydney and Melbourne at present. When those run-down cottages in blue-chip suburbs are fetching more than $1 million and modest homes in modest Sydney suburbs are sailing well above the reserve, sellers may be thinking that they have every reason to be optimistic.

But the reality is often a much more complex process.

With auction clearance rates in Sydney around 70 per cent, it means up to one-third of sellers are left disappointed come auction day.

Furthermore, there are plenty of homes outside Melbourne and Sydney’s auction hotspots that are listed for private treaty sale, but are failing to get any nibbles.

So what should you do if you are having trouble selling your home?

Re-examine your property

There are a variety of reasons why a property may fail to sell.

Look at supply and demand in your area, and if you are in a low-demand, high-supply area; then you are going need to adjust your price expectations accordingly.

It is all about that scarcity factor; if you are selling in an area with lots of competition and there is nothing particularly special about your property then you are going to have to either renovate, if that is appropriate, or price it competitively.

Sellers need to know the average time properties spend on the market in their area to check how their property is performing. Properties fail to sell due to inflated price expectations, inadequate marketing, a bad agent, poor presentation, or any combination of the four.

Right now in many suburbs in regional Queensland you may have to drop your price to be where the market is. After all, you can sell anything at the right price!

Re-evaluate your agent

Sometimes a seller has realistic price expectations and the agent is the stumbling block.

Sellers need to be extra careful when selecting their agents, as some will quote a high price to secure the commission then fail to deliver on the sale.

If this is the case, take the property off the market for a few weeks before relisting it with another agent. This way the property will seem fresh to new buyers coming on the market.

Sellers should always have a second agent in mind and not be afraid to negotiate over the exclusive listing period. This will prevent you from being stuck with an agent who isn’t performing and will allow you to list with someone else.

Nervous sellers should consider getting a valuation of the property before putting it on the market so they can be certain the agent’s quoted range is realistic.

Traps to Avoid

A home that has been sitting on the market for months on end can quickly become a money pit, and it is a situation sellers should go to great lengths to prevent.

There is a lot of truth in that you will get your most amount of interest in a property in the first few weeks and a home that has been sitting around for a while will look stale.

And, while it may be tempting to lay blame on the market, the fussy buyers or the agent, sometimes sellers need to be brutally honest and realise they are the reason a property isn’t selling.

Sellers can be greedy or self-sabotaging in that they aren’t flexible with making an effort to present the property in the very best light, being flexible for open for inspections, putting in the effort to de-clutter or and so forth.

Sometimes sellers have just plain lucky that they have been able to sell and others have been less. Happy selling!