"How To Sell Your Home in ANY Market"

At the library the other day, I picked up the book by this title where Loren K Keim and his team who have been selling homes for over twenty years, identify 6 reasons a home doesn't sell-and what you can do to fix them. He's spot on for most of his advice. In the Denver metro area today, as in his turf in Philadelphia, many segments of the market are a buyer's market. Actually, in a hot market not every home sells.

Keim's 6 reasons for a home not selling are:
Reason No. 1 Poor Staging---It's remarkable how buyers respond differently to the same floorplan when it's set up to trigger a positive emotional response in the buyers. Buyers fall in love with the lifestyle a home can bring them. Some how your staging needs to help the buyer feel that connection.
Reason No. 2 Incorrect Pricing---Even in a hot market some homes don't sell because of the price. In a buyers market pricing is more sensitive. Some neighborhoods are very elastic in price with huge variations in price based on perceived (and real) differences in the homes. The obvious case is that a trashed home won't sell for as much as an updated home. However, every seller wants to know how much they can push the price for their improvements. Ask your realtor about the showing benchmarks in your neighborhood, so you know what to expect. Be realistic. It's frustrating and tiring and possibly expensive to lose prime selling time because your price places you out of consideration. Some experts suggest 90% of selling a home is pricing it correctly! Shortsales sometimes come into play here, as do lease/options if the seller owes too much and still has to move.
Reason No. 3 Improper Marketing---Market timing, marketing focus, effective marketing systems, and "guerrilla" techniques all apply here. Certain neighborhoods are not active in the winter, others are not active in the summer, if you choose to sell outside these times, the pool of available buyers shrinks and your time on market often increases. Ask your agent who are your likely buyers and how the marketing systems attract those buyers. For the tough sell properties "guerrilla" techniques may be needed. Guerrilla techniques target the buyers in non-traditional methods or with "give-aways" like vacations or appliances or bonuses or seller paid closing costs. In my experience, this can get more folks in the door and raise interest after the pricing is near right.
Reason No. 4 Location-Challenged Properties---What do you think the effect of a busy street or high tension power lines or a business next to a property? Any of these could affect a buyer's perception of the property and limit the number of buyers who will consider the property. In my experience of over a decade selling expired or withdrawn listings, price is affected by these location challenges. Market research can often determine just what the effect is on days on market and price.
Reason No. 5 Functionally Obsolete Properties---Imagine a home with only one bathroom or no central heat. The options for sellers in these cases are monetary-either upgrade the property to sell it at an acceptable standard for area buyers or sell at a discount for an investor or handyman to purchase and bring up to standard.
Reason No. 6 "Nobody is buying in the area"---Keim addresses what may have to happen if buyers are to be found outside the immediate area or cash flow is needed and a lease/option is a fall back position.

The rest of the book gives an overview of the sales process through closing in a generic way. Each state makes its own rules for real estate transactions. Ask your agent for specifics where you live. What is the sales process? Who pays for what? Who are the players? What is the time line? What are the usual tricky spots in a transaction? When do I know my home's sold? When do I move? When do I get my money?

That's the bottom line, right? It's about moving and getting your money from the sale. All the rest is done to get you there in as timely and profitable a fashion as possible. Here's to your smooth move.