The best case scenario when you list your home for sale is that a qualified buyer sees it, falls in love with it, and makes you an offer for the full asking price within a couple days. Most homeowners assume that this is going to be the case when they list their home, and a lot of them achieve this goal. The housing market is so hot right now in many areas of the country that buyers are getting multiple offers within days of listing their home, giving them the luxury of sitting back and waiting for the best offer to come in. For other homeowners, though, the phone just doesn’t ring and your home ends up sitting on the market for weeks and even months. It’s frustrating and can start to take a toll on your finances as you wait to make your own move.

The average amount of time for a home to be on the market in the United States is currently sitting right at one month (that’s nearly twice as fast as it was five years ago, by the way!). So if your house has been on the market longer than that, it’s time to consider why that may be and what you can do to fix it.

Is Your Home Still on the Market? This is Why

You’ve priced it incorrectly.

The wrong price is one of the primary reasons houses stay on the market for too long. Sellers think that because the housing market is so hot, they should be able to put their home on the market at a premium price and get it. Sometimes that happens. But what’s more likely to happen is that your home is going to be competing with a lot of other similar homes that are prices for less. Unless your home offers something that buyers can’t get elsewhere, they are going to go for the less expensive option. Keep in mind that underpricing your home can be bad, too; buyers will assume there is something wrong with the property and avoid it.

It hasn’t been staged.

Staging matters! It’s not just to make your home look good for potential buyers, although that’s an important job. Staging gives buyers an opportunity to envision their own belongings and their own family in the space without being distracted by your personal clutter or aesthetic choices. If you haven’t had your home professionally staged and are having trouble selling it, it’s worth investing in a staging consultation to get some feedback on what you need to change. Often, we’re simply too close to the situation to be able to give it fresh eyes and evaluate the home’s staging honestly. This often involves getting rid of a lot of the clutter in your home, so you may need to invest in a storage space for a while.

You don’t have good photos.

Photos sell homes! If the photos that you or your agent took are dark, don’t show areas of the home that matters to buyers, or are low quality in some other way, there is a good chance that buyers are passing up your home. The photos in the MLS listing are the first impression that your home makes and you want it to be a good one. Potential buyers aren’t good at looking past bad quality photos and seeing potential in the space, so your photos need to really show off the property. Hiring a professional to do your photos can result in quick turnaround on your sale.

It’s not marketed correctly.

When there are a lot of houses on the market, your home needs to stand out with the right marketing. Good photos play a role in this (see above), but how the home is marketed matters just as much. If the home is being pitched to families and it’s barely big enough for a couple, then it’s not going to get the buyers needed to complete the sale. How it’s described will matter as well. Sometimes descriptions oversell the property and potential buyers end up disappointed when they come to take a look at it. All of these factors need to be right, and a lot of it depends on the work your real estate broker is doing.

You need a new agent.

Speaking of agents, they matter. If your home has been sitting on the market for more than a month, you should consider changing real estate brokers. That’s because there is a good chance that they aren’t doing everything necessary to sell your home. They might not be experienced in the real estate industry or might not be familiar with how to market a property like yours. If you aren’t getting offers, then they might not be earning their 6% commission on the sale and it’s time to move on to a new agent.

Struggling to Sell Your Home? We Can Help

If your home has been on the market for more than a month and you aren’t getting the kind of offers that you expected, get in touch with Exsell Real Estate Experts. Our team of experienced brokers in Germantown can help you sell your home faster and for the top dollar. We do it all for a flat rate, too, making it more affordable than ever and allowing you to keep more of your hard-earned money. Get in touch with us to learn more by giving us a call or contacting us through our website today.