The Real Estate Podcast

Why is my Home NOT Selling?? | The Real Estate Podcast EP316

In this episode, we tackle a question many homeowners are asking: Why is my house still on the market? From understanding market conditions to pricing strategies and the importance of proper staging, we break down why some homes sit longer and what you can do to sell faster. Whether you're a homeowner, buyer, or just curious about real estate trends, this episode is packed with valuable insights!

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0:15 – Introduction: Why is My House Still on the Market?
2:51 – Understanding Days on Market: What It Means
3:38 – Why Some Homeowners Worry Too Early
4:21 – Market Conditions and Buyer Behavior in 2024
5:04 – Factors to Consider When a Home Doesn’t Sell
5:50 – Why Pricing Your Home Correctly is Critical
6:58 – Incremental Price Adjustments: Do They Work?
7:50 – Agent Mistakes: Changing Strategies Mid-Sale
8:39 – The Importance of a Strong Pricing Strategy from Day One
10:12 – When Waiting is the Best Option
12:45 – How Staging Prepares Your Home for Sale

16:48 – Smells in the home

18:25 – Little touchups

19:50 – Get a good real estate agent

23:45 – Be flexible with your home showing time

25:23 – Outro/recap

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In 2011, Ariel Kormendy and Adrian Trott formed The Kormendy Trott Team, now often referred to as KT (thanks to our logo!). The foundation of KT is built on providing unmatched value and attention to detail in everything we do. From our ever-expanding, comprehensive list of exclusive services to our expertly trained team, you will receive the highest level of care throughout your entire real estate journey.

Originally a team of two in Milton, Ontario, the KT Team has grown into a large team of exceptional REALTORS®, a client-care department, and now includes KT media, KT Commercial and KT Property Management to provide our clients with a complete lineup of genuine, professional, and proven services across Halton Region, Peel Region and the surrounding Regions within the Greater Toronto Area.

We’d appreciate it if you’d subscribe and follow us for behind-the-scenes footage, real estate tips, industry secrets, exclusive listings, The Real Estate Podcast, and more!

Duration:: 26m
Broadcast on:: 02 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

So I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is making these incremental adjustments, like make it count, make it, make it appealing, make it give them a reason to come on have a look. Right. So I think from a buyer's perspective, what's going to persuade somebody to say, Hey, wow, these guys have done a great price adjustment. Hello, my name is Sylvia Richards with the KT team and welcome to the real estate podcast. Today we'll be talking about why your home may not be selling. Welcome to the real estate podcast. Your go to source for raw, unfiltered stories and expert tips, whether you're a buyer, seller, tenant, landlord, or realtor. Join us as we dive into the world of real estate. Good morning. Good morning. How are you, Sylvia? Good. How are you, Adrian? I'm good. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. We were just talking about how you haven't been on the podcast in the new studio. I have not. No. And I should congratulate you. You've had an excellent year. I did considering the market. Yeah. It was a little bit. Yeah, it was a little bit. I was a nervous at the beginning of the year, but it turned out to be a great year. When I, one of my best, actually. Yeah. You've done really well. I'm impressed. Um, we were, we were talking recently. You just got back from Nashville. I should have worn my boots today. You should have. Oh, what did you do while you were there? So we were there for a hockey tournament. Okay. Yeah. My younger son had a hockey tournament. Unfortunately, he broke his fibula two days before the tournament. That's frustrating. So he didn't get to play. It was, it was as a parent to watch him. It was heartbreaking. Yeah. Um, but you know what? Yeah, we had to go because everything was already paid for it. He wanted to be there to support his teammates, which was great. We have a fantastic team of parents, fantastic boys. So it was, it was so much fun. And our schedule was great. Cause we had a game in the morning, then we had a game early afternoon. So the boys on us had an evening to ourselves to go explore. And yeah. So it's a lot of a lot. I can't imagine being like my girls are not into sports. And I'm kind of happy about that. Although I think there's probably an element to the social aspect, which is really nice. Yes, but I commend you and all other hockey parents and baseball parents and any sport. It's a big commitment. It's a huge commitment. Yeah. It's a big pimp commitment. And then like my older son, there will come a day where he'll be like, I'm done. I'm like, oh, right? All that time, all that money, all the traveling, all those hotels and the tournaments. Or he'll go pro and or he'll. But even if he, even if he chooses to end it at some point, I'm sure it was well worth it, experience the friendships. Exactly. Yeah. And everything they learn along the way, that's, that's never, that that's something they're going to keep forever. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so to get into today's topic, we were talking about, uh, why is my house still on the market? And I think it's appropriate now because, uh, for the better part of this year, the days on market is longer. So that's for those listening or watching that don't know. That's the number of days it typically takes, uh, for a house to sell. So if you're on the market for 30 days and then you sell your days on market was 30 days. There's some stats that are a bit skewed because not all of the real estate boards take into account if a property was terminated and then relisted and, uh, there's factors there that don't come into consideration. Um, but the days on market now sitting around a month, condos are longer. Yeah. And I think the first place to start is just to say that I think a lot of people ask this question, why is my house still on the market way too early? Right. I find I've had people two weeks in starting to get stressed. Yeah. Because even though we're not in the market and haven't been in the market, where houses are flying off the shelf, like they used to a few years ago, people still have that mentality because that's what they remember. They remember that. Yeah. And it's a stressful process. So you're a couple of weeks in and not a whole lot of activities. Like, what the hell's going on? How do I get my house sold? Yeah. What would your, what, where would your mind go first to offer advice to somebody in that position? Yeah. Well, market conditions number one, right? So if we are in a market like we are now, where listings are sitting a little bit more longer, buyers have more options, right? So they're, you know, they're not as aggressive as they were, you know, it last year, right at this time. So I think, I mean, it's, it, there's so many different variables. If you have a house that's on the market and it has tons of showings, but you're not getting offers, that there's a clue there, right? Maybe whether it's the way your home is presented, you know, maybe your competitors are presented a lot nicer, you know, buyers are walking into your home and then they've seen five others that same day. And for whatever reason yours doesn't stand out, it could be pricing, right? It could be, could be various different factors. But I think, yeah, I think for first, my first step would be to look at the market and just prepare those buyers that, you know, yeah, the average right now is not two weeks, is not three weeks. You could be 30, you could be 40, or maybe depending on the price point too, right? Like, and the type of home. Exactly. Like the home, you know, the more expensive homes, the bigger homes, those tend right now to stay on the market a little bit longer. If it's a first time home buyer where they're looking at maybe townhomes or anything like a million, just over a million, those will send a little bit quicker, but I think the bigger, the bigger homes with the higher price, at the higher price point, do stay on the market a little bit longer. Yeah, definitely. And the, even, I mean, there's no sense of urgency either. So even if you have a lot of showings, depending on your market, but on average, like there's a lot of houses to go see, right? And there's no sense of urgency because there's generally, you know, if you see a house when it first lists, you probably don't have to worry about it selling in the next couple of weeks. So you can still go see another 20 houses to make sure the first one is, remember the time where you'd go in to see a house. I remember I was working with a couple. And because of their budget, we, every home we went to, and I'm not joking, every single home we went to, we put an offer in, right? Because, and they kept getting outfitted because they were, they were, it was at that time where you couldn't go a dollar over a million because then they wouldn't get insured. So it was, yeah, every house that we could possibly afford, they put an offer in, right? And it was like, you, they're in there for 15 minutes. No inspection. No, nothing. Yeah. I mean, to, to think now, like people shopping now is, is a great time to, to be buying, it's low pressure. Um, but the one thing that does happen that I think buyers should be aware of, and kind of goes off topic a little bit, but is because you're, you know, the houses have been on the market for a while, and there's probably been a few dozen people through, and many of them have the same mentality. They're just browsing until they find the one they like. Doesn't mean this isn't the one they like. They just haven't, uh, they haven't convinced themselves yet to put an offer on it, but once you put an offer on it, that convinces them to say, Oh, shoot, I don't want to miss out on this home. So I'm going to put an offer. So in many cases, when you put an offer on a property, it's very reasonable to think there will be another one that comes in or two or three. Absolutely. Uh, so don't get discouraged by that. Yeah. Um, I would say there's, I mean, there's a lot of factors. To why some houses are sitting, you know, we've, we generally have lower days on market than average and, you know, commend us on the efforts that we put into preparing our homes, um, and pricing our homes. And those are two really important components. So I would say when it comes to price, you need to be brutally honest with yourself, like remove all, you know, sentimental value and forget all your memories, forget that it's your home. It's just a product. It's just very hard for some buyers. A hundred percent. Yeah. Um, you really need to be critical in your pricing. And a good way to do that is maybe get a, an appraiser's opinion, you know, pay somebody just to get an unbiased second or a third opinion, whatever maybe and see where that number comes in and just be honest with yourself. Like, you know, maybe the number you're expecting is not reasonable. Yeah. And some agents, I've, I remember having conversations with agents. Sometimes they're like, they took a listing knowing that it was way overpriced. And they never had expectations of it selling. But they also had no skin in the game. They didn't stage it. They didn't do any very minimal. Yeah. And, you know, if you get an agent like that, you're really wasting your time. You really need someone that's not just going to sit there and agree with you. You need to get somebody in there that's going to be honest with you and tell you how it is. Yeah. And you need to take their advice. Yeah. And it's very, you have to be very careful in a situation like that. Because if you're in a market where homes are selling quickly and your home hasn't and it's been sitting on the market, they, they people look back at that history and see that house has been terminated or it's been relisted. So instead of really being 30 days on the market, it's been on the market for 90 days. Why are all the neighbors selling in this one? And is it, right? So you have to be super careful with that. We just, oh, let's, let's chance it. We'll just, we won't stage it. We'll just put it up on the market and see what happens. Yeah, this is red flags. Those list things I typically wouldn't take. Yeah. And the other factor, if it is price and we're not saying, you know, you need to just go drop your price dramatically to get it sold. That's not always the answer. There's other things we can talk about too. But in a lot of cases, price is a big component of it. And one of the big mistakes I see people do is, and it comes into what you're saying about seeing the history is, listen, if you've got a $1.3 million home and your agent convinces you it's time for a price adjustment, reducing it by 10 grand isn't going to do anything because if it was a discrepancy of $10,000, somebody would have offered and just come in at a lower price. Yeah. So I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is making these incremental adjustments, right? Or just that's one, just doing insignificant reductions. Like make it count, make it. Make it appealing, make it give them a reason to come on, have a look. Right. So I think from a buyer's perspective, what's going to persuade somebody to say, Hey, wow, these guys have done a great price adjustment. Let's go reconsider this home. Yeah. The other mistake a lot of agents make is, and this is more on the agent, I would say than the homeowner is changing their strategies. Like, okay, well, let's try dropping at a few hundred thousand and holding offers. Oh, that didn't work. Yeah. Let's just leave it at this price and see what happens. And when we get offers, we'll tell them no, we're expecting a few hundred more. Yeah. And you see homes like that. And like when you look back at the history, there, there was two, actually, that I was looking at when I had the home in Vaughan and they've been on the market since August of last year. Oh, wow. And there were months and months where the price hasn't changed. Then you can see a huge price reduction. So obviously they had an offer night, didn't go well, that they raised it back to higher than it was originally. Oh my God. Why? Right. So, and yeah, all that flip flopping. Like you have to, yeah, that doesn't always work. Most of the times it doesn't work. No, and we, we generally, I mean, when you first list a house, that's when you have the most eyes on it. So pricing strategy at that time is really important. And it's not always going to be perfect. And sometimes you need to make adjustments as the market changes. But I think coming out of the gate properly priced and using the right strategy off the start is important. So we generally use a three price strategy. So we consider three different options. We've done a podcast on that. So I won't get into it, but maybe I'll link to it in the description because people can kind of see the various ways you can strategize. But coming out of the gate with the right price is important. So, but the other factor too is if it's a home or if it's a property that's not average, we'll say, it's not uncommon that it could take a little while to sell for sure. So in some cases, you know, if you've considered all variables and everything looks great and as price properly, you may just need to wait. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um, the other part of it is what did you do to prepare it? Right. Do you get a lot of pushback on staging? Um, not so much staging. Um, no, not so much. I think it depends. If they, I've had a couple, a couple clients where they feel that they have so much furniture in their homes, they're like, where am I possibly going to put all this stuff to bring your staging stuff in? Um, but a lot of the times when you explain it to them, like you have to sort of take that opportunity to start packing your stuff and the stuff that you know, you're not going to take to the new home, either donate it, sell it, or get rid of it. Cause the last thing you want to do is box all that stuff up and then take it back and the two just throw it at once you get to your new home. Right. Um, so no, not, not so much pushback on staging, but you do get those people that are like, Oh no, my house is perfect. I don't need to get staged until they actually see, like I always show them our listings and be like, okay, this is there before, which looked beautiful before, but look at the difference after. It's not that we don't like your furniture. It's not that we don't like your style. We just, we want to appeal to the masses. And this is sort of what's trending right now. We want to be on trend. And this is what they're used to seeing. Yeah. Right. One, making the space feel very functional and welcoming and spacious. That's right. A lot of people have, you know, a couch that's just far too big for the space. It may be very functional. Like you can sit 10 people on it. That's right. But it makes the room feel small. Yeah. And that's not ideal. Yeah. Um, I feel I don't get so much pushback on staging, but that could be because we pay for it. I know a lot of agents don't necessarily pay for it. So I can see somebody being opposed to it then because it's expensive. I do have people that are more often reluctant to do some updates to the house, like light fixtures or painting. Yes. Those are very common ones. I think I agree with the painting, right? Cause the painting does get expensive. But we just painted two months ago. Yeah, but it makes such a huge difference. Huge difference. Yeah. And lighting too, like lighting is not very expensive. Excuse me. No. Right. Oh, geez. Excuse me. My team went down the wrong way. Um, no, lighting is not that expensive. I mean, if you're not comfortable doing it yourself, the installation can get a bit pricey, but lighting goes a long way. Um, I think painting kitchen cabinets can go a long way. People are very hesitant to do that. Um, but little things like this can go a long way and just really increasing the appeal of the home. So, you know, one thing to consider is if you do, if you do think it's time to relist it, get a staging consultation. If you haven't had one and do everything on the list. Yeah, right. Clean the house, paint the house, replace some light fixtures, pull out your furniture. And let's bring in some new stuff. Yeah. Uh, I think that can root. I mean, we know that goes a long way. Uh, in fact, we've had many houses where the identical home was for sale. But one was staged properly and one wasn't. And you'd almost feel like you're in two different houses. That's right. And then the nice ones sold first for no reason. Yeah, other than it just felt nicer. In fact, I think there's still one for sale in my neighborhood. Robin had a listing near me. Yeah. And there was a house, five or six stores down, exact same house, exact same side of the street and still for sale. And that one, I think even had an extra bathroom. Yeah, it has an extra bathroom. Yeah. Um, what other reasons could you think of that somebody might want to consider? Well, a lot of two, like with when we're like talking about presentation of the home, things like smells in the home as well. Um, I know like a lot, you, you walk in some of the homes and there's plugins, right? Which is great, but like I walk in and I don't enjoy them. It gives me an instant headache, right? Some, some buyers walk in and they appreciate that because I've had that too. I'd be like, whoa, and then they'd be like, oh, it smells so nice. I'm like, okay. One thing I've learned is not to comment too much. Well, this house is really ugly. Right. And they'll be like, I love this. And they're like, yeah, this is perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So smells of pets, like cooking, like things like that, right? Um, but then also preparing your home, like, um, paying attention to like the little stuff, like walking up the stairs. If there's cracks in like your trim and your molding, that's like a weekend. You just take a little brush and you like touch those things up. Um, you know, the switches for your lights. If they're cracked, like those things, like three bucks at home depot, right? Little things like that because you're right. People pay attention to that kind of stuff. Um, and of course curb appeal too, right? Because if that, the first thing they see is that picture on, on MLS or, right? That's the first thing they see where they drive by. And if you've got ugly curb appeal, they're already making those. And like, you know, assumptions that what it looks like outside is going to be. So we can stage it and make it look fantastic. But if your curb appeal sucks, I mean, quite often, if it isn't not that nice outside, it's usually not that nice insight, but it's not always the case. Yeah, but it is natural for somebody to make that assumption subconsciously. Yeah. And that goes to the same with what you're talking about with little details in the house, you know, if people see the cracked, uh, switch covers everywhere, you know, yellow, um, smoke detectors that are 20 years old, people just assume that, you know, this house hasn't been that well maintained when what other problems are lurking. So if you remove all objections, it's an easier thing, right? Like it's not going to cost you even silly as like your, um, shower rods, right? Like if they get rusty and it's like $10, go replace it. First of all, almost everything you're saying needs to be done in my house. Mine too. Mine too. Yeah, I was doing stuff with my lights, which is the other day, I'm like, man, these are all cracked. So I have a long list of to-dos. Yeah, I know. But I would agree. Like if you can, you need to as minor as many of these things seem individually on as a whole, they're all very important because when you're selling, the goal is to build as much value as you can, remove as many objections as you possibly can. And your whole process will go much easier. You'll appeal to more people than negotiations will be much smoother and you'll have a better outcome. Um, so I would really say don't underestimate the importance of every recommendation that stages make and that they're real estate agents making. The other consideration I would say is maybe you need a different real estate agent. There's a lot of agents out there. Um, there are a lot of great agents out there. Years may not be one of them. Yeah. Uh, so if you didn't do your due diligence the first time around, when your contract's coming due, uh, or if you're able to get out of it earlier, I'm not condoning anything. And I would say, you know, interview people and do your due diligence. This is a really important process and sale, a lot of money on the line. You want to make sure you have good representation. Yeah. Yeah. I might get myself into trouble for that, but, uh, I think it's really important. I think a lot of people blindly choose their agent because it was a friend of a friend or their step brother, you know, like everyone knows an agent. So, uh, it's not hard to connect with one. It just doesn't mean they're the right one for you. Right. Yeah. And they have, you know, it's, it's hard, especially if you have an agent in your family, right? Because now you don't want, you know, if, say you're sibling or your cousin is a realtor, like, how do you possibly say to them, well, you know what? I'm not going to go with you because, you know, I interviewed this guy and he's just got more to offer. Like that's a hard conversation to have. Sure. But then again, right. You could, you could potentially be leaving a lot of money on the table. Yeah. Well, to me, it doesn't seem like, I don't know, I may be easier going. Like I'm really good at separating business and personal life. So for me, if somebody didn't choose me, I'd obviously be disappointed. And, you know, why wouldn't you want to hire the best team in the world? But some other agents wouldn't respond so well. And I've been told about situations where that was the case. But if you choose an agent and they're not the right agent and they are, you know, you do have a personal relationship with them, that's dangerous, risky. Yes. If they're not a good agent, that's right. Because you're putting that relationship on the line. Um, if they are a great agent and they have proven it, because they've been in the business forever and they provide great service, then that's a different story. But yeah, I would just say definitely interview people and do your due diligence. We've done podcasts and blogs about how to interview people, what to look for, what to ask. Um, so maybe I would recommend people look at those, uh, just for reference. And, um, yeah, I think that kind of covers most of the. Yeah. Yeah. And then just going in with the right mindset, right? Have all those conversations and be prepared, right? Cause if you're going in with a mindset that my house is going to sell in two weeks as is, well, yeah, that might not be the case. And I would say the onus is on the agent to set the right expectations. I think that's where a lot of people miss the boat is not setting expectations correctly from everything, from, you know, a lot of your stories were image and they recalled me. Well, you know, what frequency did they say they were going to call you? Yeah, right. Like for me, if I have a listing, uh, I'll tell everyone up front, I'll, I'll, I'll connect with you every Monday morning. I'll send you a list of recent sales. We'll have a discussion about what's happening in the market and if, if, and when we need to make any adjustments and I'll give you feedback on showings, et cetera. So people know when to hear from me. That's right. If you don't have that conversation with people three days could go by, which is a short period of time and you don't hear anything and you get upset because you don't know. Yeah. So agents should just set the right expectations in the beginning and the whole process will go easier and the stress on the homeowner will be lowered dramatically. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not like, oh, there is no action. That's why I'm not hearing back. It's just that, yeah, you know, he'll call me back in two days. Like you said, yeah. Yeah. And I think one of the thing is, um, which is really important. And I forgot to mention is also accommodating showings. Like if people want to come through the house, let them through it all costs. Yeah. Don't put limitations. I've told the story before, but one of my best friends, uh, we just sold his house, but his previous house when we listed it, he said, I don't want any showings after eight o'clock and it was a, you know, lengthy conversation over a few days back and forth. And I convinced him, listen, you need to allow people to come through at any time. Like if it's after nine, let's get a little bit late. But it's reasonable because people are working till five in the city. They got to drive an hour to get home. They got to have dinner, get the kids together and get out to look at houses. It's already seven o'clock by the time they get out. That's right. Um, anyway, so he gave in. He said, okay, fine, we'll do it. And they ended up selling in multiple offers and the person that bought the house showed the house or visited the house at 8 30 on a Friday. See. And he could have potentially closed that door. That person would have never seen that home. Right. Yeah. So I always say to people, you do not want to gamble with the sale. You don't know where people are coming from. That's right. So do open houses. Yeah. Uh, because, you know, open houses are unlikely to result in a random person coming in and buying the house, but they do. They do. Yeah. So it's not worth not doing it. And you don't want to gamble with not letting us showing through. Because that person is probably also on a tight schedule and they may not be able to come back for a couple of days. Well, what if the house sells? Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So a lot of factors, a lot of factors why your house might not be selling. Yeah. Yeah. It might just be stinky and dirty. Well, thank you for. Thank you for joining me today. Well, thank you for having me. And I hope I hope our advice helped somebody get their house sold. I hope so. I hope so before the holidays, I know right now is a tricky time, right? To have to go, like, especially because now is the time when people want to start decorating or people might be wanting to go on vacations, right? Planning holidays. So it's going to be a busy time. But we just posted a blog about that. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't be opposed to decorating for the holidays. It's a great, very welcoming atmosphere. Absolutely. When you have buyers come through and you've got the lights and Christmas tree going on, which you were coming to. Right. You can see my window from your house. I can't see. Yeah. I can see your window. I can see your Christmas tree all up. Yeah. Yeah. Now that all the leaves are gone off the trees, right? Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Oh, very good. Well, thank you very much. It was nice having you on today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Thanks for joining us for today's real estate podcast. And we hope to see you at the next episode.

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16:48 – Smells in the home

18:25 – Little touchups

19:50 – Get a good real estate agent

23:45 – Be flexible with your home showing time

25:23 – Outro/recap

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Want more real estate podcast discussions?

Watch it here: youtu.be/uLhNb8fdHt4

Listen to it here: http://www.soundcloud.com/ktrealty

Catch clips and highlights of the show here: http://www.instagram.com/kormendytrott

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We’d appreciate it if you’d subscribe and follow us for behind-the-scenes footage, real estate tips, industry secrets, exclusive listings, The Real Estate Podcast, and more!