Posted on August 26th, 2007 by Jonathan Dalton

It seemed like a simple enough question that appeared on Trulia Voices today …

We have had our house on the market since the 8th of August. Not one person has come to visit. The house is in a great location and we priced it below similar houses in our area. Any ideas?

More answers may be forthcoming but so far in the debate, these homeowners already have received the following advice:

• Is it listed with a realtor? Does it have photos on the listing? Do you have a sign? (this one came from Alaska, which apparently is much like the market in Phoenix.)
• Price is not the only thing that buyers look for in a home many will spend more to get the home they want and in this market they have so many choices they can afford to be picky. Have you thought about staging? I include a consultation with a professional stager for all my clients. I would also consider flyering the neighborhood and doing open houses and broker tour. (Sorry, but price is factor one, two and three right now. And don’t start me on open houses and broker tours … again.)
• Do you have an agent? A good agent should be able to come up with a marketing plan to help drive people to your home - one idea - you could offer a higher commission to buyers agents (hopefully, they read my blog before taking this piece of advice.)
• If it is being market by a Realtor I would suggest starting with a Broker’s open to market the property to other Realtors (because nothing is more effective than having six other agents look at a home while thinking how best to sell the one they have on tour. But hey, San Francisco - thanks for checking in!)

And lastly, there was the argument between two agents - one from California, the other from Long Island - over open listings (where the first agent to sell gets the sellers’ side of the commission) and what financing options to advertise on a sign in the front yard.

I point out the various locations of the “local” experts only because they seem far more interested in boosting their own answer totals than abiding by the rules of the road that Trulia tried to set forth. (Sorry, folks … the message’s being ignored.)

And at the end of this debate - after 12 answers, some of which treaded dangerously close to interfering with an brokerage’s current listing (assuming the home is listed) - the seller has gleaned nearly no useful information.

Borrowing a page from Russell Shaw, if the home is on the MLS and is readily available on lockbox and isn’t being shown, price is the issue. Neither staging nor full-color property books on the kitchen counter will matter if a buyer doesn’t walk through the front door. And unless the price is sufficient to attract their attention, they never will.

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Categories: Phoenix Market, General Real Estate, Tips for Buyers