Imagine you have painstakingly taken every measure to market your home to achieve the highest possible returns on your sale. However, it might be time to reevaluate your property from the viewpoint of a dispassionate, objective buyer. Overlooking potential deal breakers lurking just beyond your front door can be expensive, as they may leave an bad first impression on potential buyers when they consider their options for their next home.
If you’ve been attempting to sell your home and are baffled by the lack of interest, particularly from walk-throughs, you may wonder what you’ve done wrong. Fear not, we’re here to assist you. In this article, we will delve deeper into five unexpected factors that could be preventing your house from selling in Columbus, and provide you with actionable steps to rectify these issues.
Walk-Throughs
You may have become desensitized to the familiar odors of your home, but rest assured, buyers will notice them during walk-throughs. Factors such as overpowering cooking smells, evident signs of indoor smoking, or the conspicuous presence of pets can hinder your house’s sale in Columbus. To address these issues, consider reducing strong cooking odors during the listing period, prohibiting smoking indoors, and adequately ventilating your home. As for pets, remove all visible signs, such as bowls and cages, and temporarily relocate the pets during showings.
Surprisingly, maintaining an unlived-in appearance can also impede your house’s sale. Overly sterile homes can feel unwelcoming, so it’s crucial to strike a balance between cleanliness and a lived-in atmosphere which allows buyers to envision themselves in the space. Clutter can be equally, if not more, off-putting for buyers during showings. Top real estate agents often employ professional stagers to achieve the ideal equilibrium. Stagers may recommend removing excess items to declutter storage areas, relocating oversized furniture to create a more spacious appearance, or even temporarily storing your furniture and using props to enhance the presentation.
If you prefer to bypass the walk-through process and the associated costs of preparation and marketing, consider a direct sale to local professional buyers like those at CMJones Homes. With CMJones Homes, you won’t have to worry about showings, nor will you be responsible for any expenses before the sale, including commissions.
Easy-to-Show
People are addicted to convenience and selling a house is no different. If a house has tenants or can only be shown at odd times of the day or even week, this might be keeping your house from selling. In 2020 and 2021 many sellers got spoiled with the overheated housing market. Buyers would send in an offer sight-unseen which were called “curb offers”. Those days are firmly behind us as more and more buyers have left the market due to deteriorating economic conditions and higher interest rates. Sellers are going to start needing to cater to buyers more and figuring out the things that attract buyers because just having a house for sale isn’t going to be enough. If someone decides to list their house with an agent in 2023, that person is going to have to make their house easy to view or discount it very heavily to compensate for the lack of convenience.
Condition
While curb appeal and preparatory work may attract buyers, a home in disrepair can be difficult to sell in the Columbus real estate market. Because many sellers have lived with their house problems for so long, it’s hard for them to step back and see how much work their house actually needs from the buyers standpoint. Or, sellers understand how much work a house needs, but don’t understand how the repairs affect the pricing. Many sellers assume that is a house is worth $100,000 fixed up and there are $20,000 in repairs, then they should sell their house for $80,000. That’s incorrect and you have to put yourself in the mindset of the buyer to understand why. If there are houses that are selling for $100,000 fixed up in an area, why would a person pay $80,000 for a house and then put $20,000 back into it? Why wouldn’t a person just go out and buy the house that is already fixed up for $100,000 and save themselves the time, money, risk, and stress of repairs. The answer is that they won’t buy it, and you have to keep that in mind when selling a house “as-is”.
Price
Tagging onto the point above, setting your asking price too high could also be a factor in your house’s failure to sell in Columbus. When figuring out a asking price for a house, a seller needs to look at SIMILAR houses that have sold in the area recently as well as the ones that are currently on the market. You want to “position” your house somewhere in the middle of the range and I would argue that in 2023, you’re going to want to be on the lower-end of that range if you want to sell your home. Additionally, you’re going to want to accurately assess how your house stacks up against those houses that appear to be selling that you’re using as comps. For example, does your house need work while others have been recently updated? Are the other house’s newer? Is their marketing better than yours? etc.
If you have any questions regarding any of the points above, reach out to us at CMJones Homes and we’ll go into more detail.