Putting up a property for sale doesn’t guarantee that the property will be sold automatically. Some properties stay on the market for weeks or months while other properties are snapped up within days! You put up your property for sale and you are wondering why your property has stayed for months without attracting an offer.
Below are 10 reasons why your property isn’t selling:
1. Outrageous Prices
Putting a very high price tag on your property can scare intending buyers away. The real estate business is a very lucrative business but buyers are not willing to pay more than the property is worth. Setting unrealistic prices is surely going to keep that property on the market for a pretty long time.
2. Unsuitable Marketing Strategy/ Targeting The Wrong Audience
Some sellers make the mistake of marketing their property to the wrong audience or simply using the wrong advertisement medium. Advertising your N900 million property solely on the pages of a little-known magazine isn’t going to get that property sold on time. You need to do efficient and effective marketing targeting the audience that can afford such property.
3. Poor/Dilapidated Condition
Buyers are really skeptical when it comes to investing in dilapidated houses because they usually consider the high cost of renovation. Even when they consider buying the property, they usually offer low-ball prices which the seller is most likely not going to accept. Such properties might end up staying on the market for years! It would do the seller a whole lot of good to renovate that property before sale.
4. No Pictures on Advertorials
When prospective buyers are viewing your advertorials, they want to see what the property looks like. Imagine what their reaction will be when they can’t find pictures of your property! Listing your property without pictures is like cooking soup without adding salt; it just won’t come out right! That property might not look genuine to intending buyers or they might deem you unserious and as such, they would avoid that property.
5. Untidy Condition
Putting an untidy house on sale can be a huge turn-off for intending buyers. If buyers see dirty walls, dirty bathrooms or untidy rooms when they view your property, they would most likely ‘look and pass‘, thus guaranteeing your property a long stay in the market.
6. Poor Location
Properties located in high-crime rate neighbourhoods, close to the highway or power lines are very likely to stay on the market for a long time. Buyers don’t want to risk investing in properties located in potentially unsafe areas unless the seller is willing to shave off a substantial part of the price.
7. Buyers Are Not Able to Get In
Buyers want to take a tour and see what that house looks like inside, so you should make out time from your busy schedule and give them a tour of that property. Alternatively, if you are too busy to make out time, utilize ‘virtual tours’ on online property marketing platforms. These virtual tours give the prospective buyer an experience similar to the physical tour as if they were physically present in the property. So if your property is not selling, it might be because you didn’t do any of the above.
8. You Don’t Have an Agent
With the preponderance of property scams, buyers feel more secure when they are dealing with a registered real estate agents rather than the seller. This is because they can easily verify the authenticity of that agent and hold him liable if any problem arises. So if you want that property to sell, you need a registered real estate agent to market it for you.
9. Vague Description of the Property Location
Prospective buyers are always searching for precise locations, so putting a vague location description on your property listing might discourage them from indicating interest in your property. For example, you should not list a house for sale and put the address as ‘Ikeja’. The prospective buyer might not like some particular areas in Ikeja, so a proper description would generate more interest for that property.
10. Bad Design
When a house is poorly designed, it might stay on the market for quite a while. Also, a house that has an outdated interior and exterior design might not be attractive to prospective buyers. Buyers don’t want to spend a huge sum of money on remodelling immediately after purchasing a property, so they shy away from such properties.
