Why isn’t my Home Selling?
Q: We put our home on the market 3 months ago (auction) and had no bids. Since then we have marketed it By Negotiation but we haven’t received one written offer. Our agent is a lovely lady but we just don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Any suggestions? Diana C.
There is nothing as frustrating for a home seller as their home not selling, and I’m sure your agent feels the same way too!
There are a number of possible reasons, but the most obvious is…
Price
If you have been through an auction campaign and had feedback at say $1m and you are holding out for $1.2m then maybe that’s your problem, especially if the market is not on the rise, as is the case now.
We are often confronted with a potential seller who has based their price on what the house owes them, or what a neighbour’s property sold for.
The sale price is determined by the buyer, not the seller I’m afraid, and especially in the current market.
Choice of agent
There is no doubt that a good agent will get you a better price than an average agent, and in a tough market such as we have now, this is even truer.
Make sure you have good rapport certainly, but also check their listings to sales ratio: How many properties have they taken to market this year, and what percentage of them have sold? Over 80% or 90% is good.
The final reason is the method of sale
You absolutely did the right thing by going to auction, but in our experience, if it does not sell at, or right after, auction, you should market your property with a price.
Here is where your agent can be of great benefit – if your price is too high you will sit on the market and end up chasing the market down as you reduce the price.
Somewhat counter-intuitively, if it’s too low you will attract buyers and may very well end up with a multiple-offer situation, where buyers are competing against each other in what is effectively another auction.
There may be a whole raft of other reasons you property is still on the market
People will tell you that presentation makes a big difference, and it does.
But price will always trump any other reason: If your home needs a $100,000 makeover then it will be reflected in the price.
Drop the price by $100k and you will very likely sell. If you want to spend the $100k doing the makeover you may find it easier to sell, but not necessarily for an extra $100k!
If you are not sure what renovations to do, and what not to do, before you sell, drop us a line, we are very happy to help.
We’re sorry you haven’t managed to find your buyer, but keep an open mind and think hard about what you are willing to accept in order to move on.
Market Watch November 2022
If you watched the final of The Block, or read about it, you will know that the sale prices were very disappointing for everyone but the buyers.
This is a great example of where our real estate market is at the moment – buyers know they have control, and sellers are very reluctant to accept what buyers are prepared to offer.
Speaking of the media, it amuses us that when prices were rising we had headlines like “Prices making homes for many unaffordable” etc. etc. and now that they are dropping (have dropped?) the headlines read “Homeowners lose thousands on property”. Just a little sensationalist we think!
At the end of the day you just can’t believe everything you read in the media – most of it is written to sell newspapers or advertising, and often it is only the extreme examples of real estate sales that are reported.
So despite the media wanting you to think that this is happening with every sale, that is not the case.
Last week we sold two properties under the hammer, and both sold above the seller’s reserve.
On top of that, City Realty Group, of which our office is a part, had three auctions brought forward on pre-auction offers in the last two weeks, clearly demonstrating that some buyers will pay a premium for the right property and some sellers are realistic in their expectations.
We like to revert to statistics to support our opinions, and our City Realty Group statistics show that our auction clearance rate is sitting at just under 65% – if you were to be selling through any other method your chances of selling drop to less than 15%! Auctions still work!
Buying?
If you are looking at buying, with interest rates tipped to rise again this year, isn’t this a great time to buy and lock in your mortgage rates?
Even more so if, as currently predicted, the rates are likely to hold from now until the end of 2023.
And at the moment there’s plenty to choose from, with almost 3,000 properties on offer in Auckland City.
If you are one of those people who have to sell for whatever reason then you can at least be comforted by what appears to have been an increase in buyer activity in Auckland: We have noticed over the past month that there are more people attending open homes, particularly first home buyers, and that would suggest that there is more interest in property.
Or is it just that the sun has finally come out and people are getting out from in front of Netflix to go and look at houses? Only time will tell.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any real-estate-related questions – we are very happy to help.
