It’s every home seller’s worst nightmare, you’ve taken the time to get your home prepped, did some of those last minute repairs that were bothering you, hired a real estate broker (or put it up for sale by yourself), they’ve staked the for sale sign in the yard and waited for the right buyer to walk in the door, fall in love and make you a juicy offer on your house. Maybe you got a few showings, but it hasn’t worked out, so you’ve waited… and waited… and waited. Day after day, week after week, month after month, that elusive buyer just hasn’t appeared. The showings have trickled to a stop or worse, you haven’t had any visits yet at all.
I’m going to tell you why your home isn’t selling and I’m going to give you the exact steps you need to take right now to turn things around and get it sold:
What seemed so promising at the start has become what feels like a hopeless situation. All your plans and dreams are put on hold, perhaps your next dream home in the right school zone that you’ve either put a conditional offer on (or are eyeing online) now seems like just a dream that will never come true. No one seems to want to buy your house. It’s sitting on the market and no one is visiting or if they are, they just aren’t buying.
It may be some comfort to know that you aren’t alone in this situation.
You only have about a 50% chance of selling your home
According to the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board between January and June of 2023 15,313 properties were listed for sale in the Montreal area (including the West Island), and only 7,707 actually sold during that time. It’s a statistic that most home sellers aren’t aware of (and many real estate brokers won’t tell you), that when you list your property for sale, you literally only have a 50% chance that your property will sell!
“… when you list your property for sale, you literally only have a 50% chance that your property will sell!”
In the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area the story is similar, there were 1760 properties listed for sale in the region, and only 1049 sold, or a 60% chance your home will be sold.
So you have basically a 50 – 60% your home will sell during a 6 month period on the market. Maybe you haven’t given up hope yet (good!) it’s maybe only been a couple of months on the market, it just takes time sometimes right?
That depends, in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the average number of days on market before a property was sold between January and July of 2023 was 112 days, and for Montreal it was 102 days, a little over 3 months.
So if your home has been sitting on the market longer than the market averages (these will vary as well by price range, property-type and neighbourhood so please verify with your broker for your particular situation), or you haven’t been getting many (or any) visits, there is a problem that you need to take action on now if you do want to move to that dream home, downsize, upsize or move on within a reasonable amount of time.
On the other hand, maybe you aren’t that motivated, or are just testing the market, and if you get your price great, and if you don’t, you won’t move. Maybe you have as much time as it takes, a year or longer to sell your home to wait for the market to catch up to your price. That’s ok, there’s nothing wrong with that approach (as long as you’re transparent with your real estate broker about your plans so they can evaluate their investment of time and money) and your expectations and timeline are aligned with your plans.
“Though I’d suggest waiting to list your home until the price you want (or need) for it aligns with what the market says it will pay for your home.”
Though I’d suggest waiting to list your home until the price you want (or need) for it aligns with what the market says it will pay for your home. Sitting on the market for years will only hurt your chances in the end.
So I promised earlier I’d tell you why your home isn’t selling. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, it’s one that most real estate brokers know, but very few home sellers. Ready?
Here is the reason why your house isn’t selling
The ONLY reasons why your house isn’t selling:
There. That’s it. You know the secret. Article done.
It’s really that simple. Some brokers will say it’s the neighbourhood, it’s the location, it’s the buyers, it’s the season, it’s the economy, it’s interest rates etc.
Yes those factors all have a role to play in the home sale process and the market. But what the broker is really saying is that they are all factors affecting the real reasons it isn’t selling now:
THE PRICE.
“…they are all factors affecting the real reasons it isn’t selling now: THE PRICE.”
What about the real estate broker, shouldn’t they be to blame for it not selling? Now I will say real estate brokers are not all the same and this is not an article about what your broker should be doing for you. The broker’s activity (or lack of it) marketing the home and how and where it’s presented will have a huge influence on the sale of a home.
What I am saying is that if you don’t address the one (or both) of the PRIMARY reasons why your home isn’t selling, it doesn’t matter who the broker is, or what they do, it’s not going to sell, period.
The Price
In my experience many home sellers will interview 3 real estate brokers to decide which one they want to use to sell their home. It’s a smart decision and I’d recommend home sellers go through this exercise, even if they already know a great real estate broker. It’s a big decision and it’s important to take the time to meet with several brokers to decide which one offers the track-record, marketing plan and skills to negotiate and sell your property for the most money in the least amount of time and hassle.
But there is another reason why interviewing 3 real estate brokers is a smart decision. Getting a variety of opinions on the price.
The reality is that most decent real estate brokers have a very good idea of the price range of what your home will sell for before we even walk in the door to see it. Provided we’ve asked the right questions and been given honest answers. We could change our minds after seeing the property, both up or down, but in reality good real estate brokers are basing the pricing on the comparable homes that have sold recently in your neighbourhood and their sold prices and their features and benefits.
In other words, we are basing the home’s value on what the market says it’s worth.
I take pride in my pricing skills. I look closely at the data, I look at the market statistics and trends, and I look at the home itself in detail and what it offers. I can say with a fair degree of certainty I know what a house will sell for in the current market. I offer my home sellers a realistic and honest picture of how long it should take for their home to sell and how much it should sell for based on the market data.
“Keeping a close eye on market trends can influence the value of your property even amongst comparable homes, pushing prices up in a hot sellers’ market and dragging them down in a cool buyers’ market.”
That’s market knowledge and experience, it comes from knowing what buyers are looking for, from what neighbourhoods are hot, and which are not. It’s from keeping a close eye on the market stats. It’s from years of experience and meeting thousands of buyers and sellers and seeing what attracts buyers and what repels them. Keeping a close eye on market trends can influence the value of your property even amongst comparable homes, pushing prices up in a hot sellers’ market and dragging them down in a cool buyers’ market.
Now here’s why I believe it’s important to get 3 brokers’ opinions on the price of your home. Usually at least one of the 3 price opinions is accurate.
I’m going to come out and say it: there is a well-known and dirty little secret amongst some real estate brokers that gives our profession a bad name (and probably contributes to the reason why only 50% of homes are sold), called “buying the listing”. So what does it mean when a real estate broker tries to buy a listing and why could that ruin your chances of selling your home? Let me explain.
Buying the Listing
Real estate brokers know that almost 100% of the time the home seller will want more for their home than what it’s worth. I’ve never met a normally-motivated seller in over 15 years of practicing as a real estate broker who didn’t believe their home was worth more than what the neighbours and comparable homes sold for.
“…the difference between what the seller originally lists their home for, eventually reduces it to and then eventually sells it for, is several tens of thousands of dollars if not more.”
It’s a normal bias, most home sellers currently don’t know what their neighbours home sold for. They may have seen the sign in their yard and looked it up online to see what they were asking for it the first week it went up for sale. Oftentimes the difference between what the seller originally lists their home for, eventually reduces it to and then eventually sells it for, is several tens of thousands of dollars if not more. The homeowner is usually not aware of what the neighbour sells for and fixates on the original (and often inflated) initial asking price.
So working from the original asking price of the neighbour’s home and then compares it to their home. Surprise, surprise they like their home more and feel it’s worth more (and why wouldn’t they? They chose and bought THEIR home, not the neighbours). Their décor is nicer, why? They chose the décor! Their kitchen is nicer, why? They chose the kitchen! They decide their home is worth $50,000 more because they changed their kitchen, because of landscaping, because it has 3 trees in front, whatever the reason, and it’s THEIR home and it’s the best.
So let’s say the identical neighbours house was listed for sale for $870,000, was reduced to $840,000 and sold for $810,000. And the similar comparables all sold between $800,000 and $820,000 recently. Now the homeowner only sees the $870,000, believes his house is better (remember it always will be considered better) and homeowner says his must be worth $900,000 since it’s better. He’s off by $90,000 from what the market says it’s worth, and it just will not sell now if he lists it at the price he thinks it’s worth.
So you can see it’s not an easy and enviable task to meet often a complete stranger (and it might be even worse when it’s a friend!) and tell them that their home they have been thinking about selling for months and have in their head is worth $900,000, is actually worth $810,000 – because the market says it’s worth that price. I can see why a lot of real estate brokers don’t have that sometimes difficult conversation and they should if they truly want to work for their clients’ best interests.
The owner is working from incomplete and incorrect data, combined with his bias towards his own house and the fact he cannot be objective about it. If the real estate broker doesn’t do their job to educate and bring the homeowner into reality of the market, his home will become one of the 50% of homes that doesn’t sell.
Even the most hardened un-emotional, analytical business people I’ve met just cannot objectively look at the value of their own home. It’s too personal, it’s their home, it’s many people’s nest-egg, they are emotionally connected to their home and I respect that.
So you can see where a broker who is looking to buy the listing will tell the homeowner whatever they want to hear to get the listing under contract, will result with a home that sits on the market way overpriced from what the market will bear. The seller will then blame the broker for why their home is not moving, and they should. They should blame the broker for not being honest with them about the price up-front rather than what they are doing or not doing to sell the home. Remember if the price is way off, it doesn’t matter who the broker is or what the broker does. It all flows from the price first.
“Many brokers will not tell you that, but it’s the truth, if the price is off the house will not sell.”
Many brokers will not tell you that, but it’s the truth, if the price is off the house will not sell.
Taking an objective look at it is nearly impossible and it’s one of the areas where many brokers fail, in terms of helping their clients see their own home objectively the way the market and prospective buyers will see it. As a product like any other that is to be sold into the market. A product that will be compared to other products that are for sale and have sold. So all real estate brokers know the seller will ALWAYS want more for their home than what it’s worth.
Why many homes for sale by owner are overpriced
It’s why homes that are for sale by the owner are often overpriced. They don’t benefit from an objective market valuation of their home, the seller prices it what they think it’s worth, (with all the emotional, attachment and personal preferences that go along with their own home) and it’s almost always tens of (if not a hundred) thousand dollars more than what a similar home would sell for with a broker. Without a professional who has experience to advise the seller objectively, the seller sets their own price with no market knowledge or objectivity and guess what? They think it’s worth more. It’s a normal bias.
It’s probably one of the primary reasons that for sale by owner websites don’t publish stats on what percentage of their users’ homes sell that are posted on their sites. My hunch is the percentage is very low. Most are overpriced and as a result most don’t sell into the market. No one is there to advise the seller on the market value of their home so they shoot high and wait and wait and wait.
As a homeowner you cannot be truly objective about your own home’s market value, it’s nearly impossible. Also speaking with your friends and neighbours won’t work either. Remember they have a vested interest in you getting an impossibly high price for your home, especially the neighbours who may want to sell too eventually. Higher you get, higher they will get (and like all home-owners they secretly know their home is worth more than yours too).
So back to what it means when a broker tries to “buy the listing”. We all know roughly what a home will sell for based on the market comps. So what a less-skilled or less-experienced broker will do when competing with 2 other brokers is to give the seller a hugely inflated price for their home in the hopes the seller will choose them. And why wouldn’t the seller choose them to sell their home? Here’s someone who claims to be a professional broker saying he can get $50,000 or $100,000 more for their home! Who doesn’t want $100,000 more?
“The thing is the broker knows that the home will never sell for that price.”
The thing is the broker knows that the home will never sell for that price. Their strategy is to get the home under contract at the inflated price and benefit from having their sign in the neighbourhood (and pick up more buyer and seller clients from the exposure and calls on the home) and after many months they will repeatedly pressure the sellers to lower their price to the price that will allow it to sell. The price it should have been set at from the start.
Real estate is a hyper-competitive business and I compete a lot with other brokers for listings and while I do end up listing a majority of the homes I interview for, I know there are always some brokers who can’t compete on track record and their marketing plan and just BS the price to get the seller to list with them. I know I will lose the listing to those brokers sometimes and I also know that home sellers will not sell until they eventually get to the true market price. And oftentimes their home will sell LOWER than it would have had it been priced correctly from the start!
“…when a house sits unsold for many months, prospective buyers usually assume one of two things: 1. The house must have something wrong with it or 2. The sellers must now be desperate, both of which result in lower offers.“
Remember when a house sits unsold for many months, prospective buyers usually assume one of two things: 1. The house must have something wrong with it or 2. The sellers must now be desperate, both of which result in lower offers.
Some sellers will not be willing to (or cannot for financial reasons) list their home for sale at a price the market will accept as well.
While I feel bad for these sellers that have either been duped by a dishonest broker or cannot sell for the market price, or refuse to look at reality – I am ok to not list their home and will walk away and let the seller know I cannot help them at this time as I know it won’t sell and will be a difficult situation for both the seller and for their broker as they come to terms with the fact that the house will not sell.
“I get more referrals from a happy client whose home I’ve sold than an unhappy client whose house is sitting with a for sale sign with cobwebs on it.“
I only get paid for my work when I sell my client’s home, a sign in a yard is worthless to me and to the homeowner, unless it has the word SOLD on it. I’m in the business of selling my clients’ homes, not placing my sign in front of their house for 6 months to build my business. I get more referrals from a happy client whose home I’ve sold than an unhappy client whose house is sitting with a for sale sign with cobwebs on it. So I don’t do it unless the seller is aware they are testing the market and what that means for their timeline.
Quite honestly I wouldn’t sleep well at night knowing I was dishonest and was just trying to get more business for myself on the back of a home owner’s dream to sell their home. That’s where our industry gets a bad name.
Why do homes sell after 3 months on average?
Above I mentioned that homes are selling on average around 100 days or so. This number has been pretty stable in the Montreal area market for a long time. If you go back year after year (again in normal markets) you will see this approximate 100 day mark show up year after year. There is a reason for this.
It is around the 3rd month after a house has been sitting on the market without an offer when the seller will begin to realize that perhaps they should reduce their price to get their home sold. The broker too may be feeling the pressure for an unsold listing from the home seller and pressure the seller for a price reduction.
So typically 90 days in the price will be adjusted to the price the market will bear and the house sells within a couple of weeks (again in a normal market). This is why homes on average sell after 90 days. That’s when the price gets adjusted to where it should have been from the start. Remember, it’s the market that decides the price.
In the end the market decides how much the home is worth. Not the seller, not the broker. It’s the market knowledge that the broker brings to the table to accurately advise the home seller on the correct asking price that will allow the home to sell within a reasonable amount of time.
“…a home is worth only what a buyer is willing to pay for it.”
As I tell many of my clients, a home is worth only what a buyer is willing to pay for it.
The reality is, if the price of the home is much higher than the price the market values the home at, the home won’t sell, no matter what the real estate broker does.
I see listings posted by brokers on Facebook with drone footage, video walkthroughs with high-end production values. While I think this is super cool and probably impresses the heck out of the client, I check back on the system the agent’s use and check back on our broker’s system and see the house has expired without selling. Broker spent a fortune, wasted a ton of time and money for themselves and their client (maybe they got good exposure for themselves through the expensive video they produced) but the house ultimately didn’t sell, and it’s not for not trying, it’s because the price was wrong from the start.
“No amount of marketing will make up for pricing a home wrong.”
No amount of marketing will make up for pricing a home wrong. You could run continuous Facebook and other internet marketing advertising, spend thousands of dollars over months but if the price is wrong, it still won’t sell. That’s the truth.
Without the foundation in place of an accurate asking price, all the work the broker will do to market the home, attract buyers, bring their clients, will be for nothing, as it won’t sell.
If the market’s value is much higher than what the seller prices it at, it sells immediately. The trick is maximizing the price for the seller (while respecting the seller’s timeline) while not pricing it out of the market. This change can happen in an instant, the market in a particular neighbourhood suddenly becomes highly desirable for whatever reason, prices jump, that’s why a knowledgeable broker who tracks the market in the area is a great asset.
It’s a little bit of a science and a little bit of an art. A skilled broker wants to maximize their client’s (the seller) sale price while respecting their timelines for moving. Price it too low and it sells immediately (and might have gotten more), price it too high and it never sells.
And again, it’s the market that sets out that sweet spot, not the seller, and not the broker. A good broker will have excellent market knowledge and be able to advise the seller on that sweet spot.
“…your asking price does not match what the market currently believes it’s worth as a result of those factors. If it did, your house would be sold already.”
So when a broker says it’s the economy, it’s the season, it’s the location, it’s the political situation, it’s interest rates etc. as a reason why your house is not selling, what they are really saying is that your asking price does not match what the market currently believes it’s worth as a result of those factors. If it did, your house would be sold already.
So when you interview three real estate brokers, pay close attention to their justification for the suggested price. Ask the broker to show you clear market data that justifies their price, and remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, especially when it comes to price.
To weed out those brokers who are trying to buy the listing, ask them to show you what percentage of homes they list they actually sell. If they aren’t punishing the seller to drop the price after they list it, they probably only sell a small percentage of the homes they list, you don’t want to become one of their disappointed clients.
Remember it all starts from the price. If you get that wrong, or make the mistake to “test the market” when you really want to sell, you will almost invariably take longer to sell your home and in the end if it does sell, it will be for a lower price than it should have.
“When your asking price is overpriced, buyers expect that you’ll only ever accept an overpriced offer and won’t even bother offering at all.”
Pricing your home to leave a large amount of room for negotiations (more than the market averages) and expecting an offer regardless is ridiculous. I’m always surprised when a client says they had priced their home (usually it’s an expired listing that needs to sell) very high, but no buyer was willing to make a more reasonably priced offer that they would have accepted. When your asking price is overpriced, buyers expect that you’ll only ever accept an overpriced offer and won’t even bother offering at all. You are just helping your competition sell their homes.
Buyers will look at your inflated asking price and compare it to the same home for sale for much less (even if it’s priced at the market price) and buy your competition as they will feel like they’re getting a bargain!
The mistake in pricing is made right from the start, and I cannot say this enough, it’s the biggest, most important factor in why your home is not going to sell. Take the time, take away the emotion as much as you can, be realistic and as objective as possible with yourself about whether you can accept what the market is saying your home is worth and then decide. If you can’t accept what the market is saying its worth, then wait and sell when the market price matches your expectations.
Doing anything else is going to lead to a lot of heartache, will waste your (and your broker’s time), and will cost you money.
So you know the first reason your home is selling is the price. The 2nd reason is the condition.
The Condition
The 2nd real reason your house isn’t selling is its condition. More precisely though it’s that the condition doesn’t match the 1st reason it’s not selling, the price.
“…if the price is wrong it doesn’t matter what the condition is. If the price is correct, only then does condition become an issue.”
And let me preface this by saying that the condition is a distant, distant, distant 2nd if the price is incorrect. Meaning if the price is wrong it doesn’t matter what the condition is. If the price is correct, only then does condition become an issue.
If you thought many brokers cringe at telling the seller the truth about the price, imagine coming into a stranger’s home and critiquing their own choice of décor, furniture and paint colors. It’s not an easy task but it’s important that the sellers know what improvements they can do to their home to help it sell for the most money in a reasonable amount of time.
“If a seller wants to blame the broker for not doing their job, it should be for not being honest and upfront about what the seller should do to improve their home’s condition.”
Many brokers fail at this step, and it’s not because they don’t know what’s going to turn off buyers, it’s because many don’t want to risk offending a seller and not taking the listing. If a seller wants to blame the broker for not doing their job, it should be for not being honest and upfront about what the seller should do to improve their home’s condition.
When buyers are looking at homes and fall in love with one, it’s an emotional decision, backed up by logic. But it’s the emotion that comes first.
When getting feedback from a buyer after a visit, we often hear “I just wasn’t feeling it”, what they are saying is that they just weren’t having that emotional connection with the home. It was nice, it was pleasant, it checked all the boxes but it didn’t connect with the buyer on that level.
Please don’t do what many sellers do and go and change all their windows, have the roof redone, change a furnace or get their driveway paved and then add that cost to the value of the home before putting it up for sale. It’s not how that works.
Most normal buyers expect those things to be in good working order, but they add zero emotional value to the home. If they’re broken, fix them absolutely, but don’t expect to get more money for your home for most functional/systems improvements.
“Ask yourself, does upgrading this add any emotional value to my home? If the answer is no, and it’s not broken, don’t fix them. If the answer is yes, focus your attention and budget there.”
Ask yourself, does upgrading this add any emotional value to my home? If the answer is no, and it’s not broken, don’t fix them. If the answer is yes, focus your attention and budget there. If you get excited about furnaces great but remember most buyers don’t and will not base their decision to buy your home on the shiny new air exchanger you put in.
If your broker doesn’t work with a good home stager or cannot offer you specific easy changes that you can do to improve your home’s presentation, I would look elsewhere.
“… if buyers are not connecting with your home on an emotional level it’s going to have a harder time selling.”
Even if you do list the home at the correct market price, if buyers are not connecting with your home on an emotional level it’s going to have a harder time selling. That’s why home staging works, and it’s why homes that are staged sell higher and more quickly than homes that do not.
So condition matters, but it’s the visual condition more than the functional/systems condition when it comes to selling. I have never seen a home buyer choose a newer furnace over a newer kitchen. Or a newer roof over new floors.
Work with a broker who has a home stager on his team who can advise you on the little (often simple, inexpensive) improvements you can do to maximize your home’s emotional value in the market. Think painting a room, changing fixtures, curtains, linens, adding some tasteful artwork before having your windows changed or your roof redone.
Now what if you have a home that is old, dated and you don’t have the time, money or will to change it, you just want it sold. In that case you have to go back to the primary reason and adjust price to the lower emotional value the home has and to account for the work to be done.
“If you get the price wrong you won’t sell, no matter what the condition is. If you get the price right and then the condition is wrong, you may have to adjust the price to take into account the condition and even then it will be more difficult and take longer to sell.”
Remember there is a buyer for EVERY home. But only if the price and then condition match what the buyer’s (the market’s) expectations are. If you get the price wrong you won’t sell, no matter what the condition is. If you get the price right and then the condition is wrong, you may have to adjust the price to take into account the condition and even then it will be more difficult and take longer to sell.
Here’s 5 Concrete Steps to Take Right Now to Get Your Home Sold:
I said I would give you specific list of steps to take to get your home sold if its sitting on the market for a long time, here goes:
Bonus step: Don’t lose hope! There is absolutely a buyer for EVERY home, you just need to take the necessary actions and make the necessary adjustments to ensure the buyers and the market see the value in your home.
If you’ve taken care of these 5 steps, great! Now it’s up to your broker to do his job. Remember there are at their basic level only 2 reasons why a house isn’t selling. Its price and its condition. If you don’t take care of those two, it doesn’t matter who your broker is or what they do to market your home as the market decides what a house is worth, not the seller and not the broker.
“A good broker will try to position your home in the market at a competitive price that will cause the house to sell within a reasonable amount of time.”
A good broker will try to position your home in the market at a competitive price that will cause the house to sell within a reasonable amount of time. A solid marketing plan, client list and the experience necessary will ensure your home gets sold for the highest possible price in the least amount of time. If you’d like a second opinion on why your home didn’t sell and a concrete plan to get it sold this time, I invite you to contact me.
I’m Andrew Mitchell, Chartered Real Estate Broker, Owner and Agency Executive Officer of Mitchell Group Real Estate Agency. I consult and work for buyers, sellers and investors in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the West Island and the Greater Montreal area. My goal is to provide you with useful, straightforward insights and relevant real estate market updates. Contact me with any questions. Follow me on Facebook.