What to Do If Your House Isn’t Selling

So you haven’t had a showing in weeks and you’ve forgotten what your realtor looks like and you may or may not have started to wonder if you’ll be moving after all.

You’re not alone. With the housing market recovering so unevenly, many sellers are finding that they’re not able to move on as quickly as they’d like. That being said, if your home has been sitting on the market for months, it’s probably time to reevaluate your strategy.

Before you do something drastic, try giving these 5 tips a chance.

1. De-clutter and read up on home staging. Many sellers assume buyers won’t mind the clutter—it doesn’t come with the house, after all. But though buyers know this, it doesn’t keep them from focusing on the knick-knacks when they should be admiring the hardwood. A messy house can also make buyers wonder what else you haven’t kept on top of, or even signal a lack of storage space

If you’re wondering where to start, home staging could be your answer. Staged houses typically sell faster and for more money than vacant or as-is homes. The basic idea? Aim for the hotel look. That means clear surfaces, neutral colors, no personal photos, and minimal furniture.

2. Be willing to compromise. When you’re selling something as big as a house, flexibility is your best friend. For instance, if you’re only showing your home on certain days or during certain hours, you may not be reaching the right buyers, lowering your chances for a sale. Refusing to entertain a lower offer, or to compromise in other ways can also be an issue. Don’t let a deal fall through because of something as small as closing fees or a broken toilet.

3. Fix the little things. Speaking of broken toilets, fixing yours (or your dingy paint job, or that loose tile in the kitchen, etc.) may make a big difference in the eyes of a buyer. No matter how small the fix, it’s still one more thing for a buyer to worry about in the middle of an already stressful move. Try taking a few weeks to get your house as close to move-in ready as possible, and it could just pay off.

4. Make a bigger (or a better) marketing push. Sometimes, selling a house is just a numbers game. If no one sees your listing, or if it’s not appealing when they do see it, you’re not going to be getting the traffic you need to make a sale.

Often, this just means uploading better pictures to your internet listing. These days, most buyers want to get a good feel for a property before they visit in person, and if you only have a handful of fuzzy cell phone photos taken pre-decluttering, you’re not showing your home at its best. Make sure your photos are well-lit, clutter-free, and plentiful.

5. Take a second look at your asking price. Nothing can kill a sale faster than an unrealistic asking price. Many sellers make the mistake of letting their attachment to the house get in the way of their subjectivity. This is why it’s important to listen to your realtor or appraiser, or else know the prices comparable houses in your neighborhood are selling at. It may just be time to lower your expectations.

source: totalmortgage.com

Case-Shiller Index: Home prices post largest gain in a decade, just not in NY

Housing prices surged nationwide in March, but growth in the New York area lagged behind, according to Case Shiller Index data released Tuesday.

One reason for sluggish local growth was that prices here didn't fall as much as more speculative markets did during the crash. Experts also cited the impact of a shrinking Wall Street, New York's long foreclosure process, and superstorm Sandy.

Nationally, prices rose in March by 10.2 percent compared to a year earlier. That gain was the highest annual return since 2006, when the housing market was peaking. The biggest growth was in Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas, where year-over-year increases topped 20 percent.



In the New York area -- defined as a 29-county region that includes Long Island -- prices rose by 2.6 percent, the smallest gain among 20 metropolitan areas covered by the index.

Prices on Long Island actually slipped in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to data published last month from a different source. The median Island home price, excluding sales in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, fell 2.6 percent, to $341,000 from $350,000, according to real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc.

The uneven recovery speaks to the disparity of the housing crash, experts said. While Phoenix is up 30 percent since the trough and New York is up 3 percent, prices in that Sunbelt city plunged 56 percent in the crash, while those in the local market fell 27 percent, said Craig Lazzara, an analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, which publishes the index.

"New York had relatively low decline in the deflation of the bubble," Lazzara said, "and so it had less to bounce back from."

Lazzara said the shedding of Wall Street jobs was also a factor. "New York, to a large degree, is influenced by the financial industry, and we all know that that industry is contracting," he said. "When one of the major industries affecting the area is downsizing or is shrinking more than it's rising, that inevitably is going to affect the demand for real estate."

Other factors that create a drag on area prices are a backlog of foreclosures due to the state's relatively slow legal process, and the fact that the housing market in suburban areas like Long Island is underperforming compared to urban areas, said Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive of Miller Samuel.

Other parts of the country also didn't have to deal with last fall's superstorm, said Kevin Leatherman, president of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. "Hurricane Sandy also skews the numbers," Leatherman said, "because you have houses that are physically distressed."

source: newsday.com