1.  The Home Photos Were Bad/ There                       Weren’t Enough Home Photos

I’ve extensively studied Expired Listings and looked into the reasons why they didn’t sell.  It continues to amaze me how often the photos of the home are poorly shot.  This is one of the most crucial steps in marketing a home.  The photos of the house will be used over and over again.  They should be plentiful and must have the proper lighting, angles and layout to make sure the home looks as good as possible.

In addition to the photos being poor quality, listings that have expired also usually don’t offer enough photos of the home.  Whether the buyer is previewing the home    online, with a drive by flyer, or directed to the home by an Agent, the photos of the home should give the potential buyer an overall feeling of the home, not just a handful of rooms.

Whenever I coach sellers, I always recommend them to look at past work that a potential Agent has done prior to signing a listing contract.  Look into past home photos, as they are a great sign of the quality of an Agents marketing.  Stay away from photos with shadows on the front of the home, room photos with dim lighting and exterior photos with cars in the driveway, trash cans visible, etc.

2. Poor or No Virtual Tour/ Video

Like the photos of listings that have expired, there is a common theme when it comes to the homes’ video or virtual tour.  There is usually no video at all, or in cases when there is, it’s generally a stale virtual tour that uses the same poor photos mentioned in the previous note. 

I have found that buyers really respond to a video highlighting the great features of the home.  It gives them another way to explore the home and tends to feel more “alive” than photos.  It also makes the home viewable on extra websites, like YouTube and WellcomeMat.

3.  Your Home Wasn’t Staged Properly

This is the most important thing that you can do yourself to help sell your home.  Statistics tell us that staged homes sell more quickly and for a higher price than un-staged homes.  According to the RESA (Real Estate Staging Association) Staging Statistics Report released in 2009, un-staged homes previously on the market that were then staged and re-listed spent an average of 85% less time on the market.  These are staggering numbers!  In 2008, the un-staged homes that were on the market for an average of 57 days were staged, listed and sold in an average of 6 days. 

Please contact me for a completely free, absolutely no obligation staging consultation.  I can also provide you with a room by room staging brochure with tips and   strategies to stage your home as effectively as possible.

4.  The Home Was Not Thouroughly              Marketed

There is abosultely nothing worse than when an Agent takes on a listing, sticks a sign in the ground and ends the marketing efforts there.  Selling your home must be treated like selling any other high-priced asset.  Think about when you buy a car.  You probably knew what model you were interested in before even stepping on the lot.  This is because the advertising efforts of the car company have already made you aware of selling features and highlights of your future vehicle.  Your agent needs to get the selling features and highlights out to as many buyers as possible.  This means attacking the buyer pool by promoting the house on as many websites as possible, collecting as much drive-by traffic as possible and making the most out of the buyers that you have through your home.

5.  The Selling Features of the House Were                                         Not Marketed Properly 

You are the expert on your home’s best features.  Work with your Agent to make sure that they are getting these great features across.  Buyers commonly miss these   features that you may think are obvious.  If the worst thing that can be said about your marketing efforts is that you were redundant about the home’s features, your home is in a great position.

6.  The Take-Away Materials Were Cheap, or                       They Weren’t Accessible to Buyers

When buyers can walk away from your home with high quality take-away pieces, it keeps their mind on your home hours after they have left.  Home buyers will often visit several homes in one day.  In the evening when they are thinking about all the homes they looked at that day, the homes with the nicest take-away materials will often jump to the top of the list.  Homes that don’t offer any take-away material at all will be easily forgotten. 

Often home buyers will equate the quality of the flyer with the quality of the home.  It needs to be full color, contain quality photos and be printed on high end paper.  A flyer is not the only piece of take-away material that can be offered to home buyers.  I like to offer DVDs for potential home buyers to take with them.  The DVD offers a photo gallery and the home video.  This gives the potential buyer a chance to share the walkthrough experience with their family or friends.

7.  The Agent Did Not Communicate With          You or Potential Buyers

The most common complaint heard from owners of homes that did not sell is this: “My Agent didn’t communicate with me enough”.  This makes for a bad experience for the home seller and can be a sign of a much larger problem.  If an Agent doesn’t communicate with his/her seller, there is a strong possibility that the Agent is also not communicating with potential buyers.  Very often buyers will have additional questions or concerns about a home that they have visited.  The Agent you are working with must work with buyers and be attentive to any issues they may have.  With the current state of the market, there are a lot of options for buyers, and if they don’t receive timely answers to concerns they may have, they are likely to just move on to another potential home.

I request feedback from any showing on my listings.  I strongly encourage this approuch as it gives you a good idea of what impression your home is making on buyers.  As the home seller, this information should be readily available to you, giving you constant feedback on what buyers feel about the price, condition and salability of your home.  Work with your Selling Agent to interpret this feedback and adjust your marketing plan accordingly.

Greg Luczak
ERA Herman Group Real Estate
Broker Associate
(719) 271-8888