Not every home is going to be fast in this housing market madness sold. How is it that some homes are for sale for a very long time?
Staked too high
Pricing a home too high deters viewers. Viewers very often (in the Randstad) assume that they already have to overbid (considerably). What often works best is to price the home a little more attractively, even below its actual market value, and use this to attract many viewers. Many viewers, often means many interested people and this pushes up the price.
Being bid above the actual value means, few viewers, few interested parties and no pressure to overbid. People are becoming expectant.
‘There must be something wrong with the house’
Typically, a property in the Haarlem region is sold within 1 month. Often even within 2 weeks. If a home doesn’t sell in the1st month, either because of dumb luck or because the home is priced too high, people often think there is something wrong with the home. From my role as a buying agent, I have thus been able to regularly purchase gems of homes, without any competition. After all, there doesn’t have to be anything wrong with a home that has been for sale longer.
There is something wrong with the house
Sometimes there is just something wrong with the home. Some real recent examples of me as a buying agent:
-a house with a rotten wooden pile foundation underneath
-The property is very unfavorably located along, for example, a busy road
-The house has been modernized (in part) but has been very unfavorably laid out and/or remodeled so that you actually have to demolish everything to redo it (but properly).
-The house-to-garden ratio are taken out of context. Mega living room and only one more postage stamp of a garden.
-It’s a monument that needs a lot of work.
-There is serious pollution
-There are very unfavorable leasehold conditions
-There is a very unhealthy HOA or no (active) HOA
and so on…
Praised too highly by the seller
Sometimes people find they have a higher value judgment about their home, than it is actually worth. Their own modifications and/or additions are sometimes interpreted very differently by the target buyers. If a broker does not dare to stand up to his client and allows himself to be led by the client’s excessively high asking price, the result can be that there is too great a gap between what the client wants to get for it and what the market is willing to pay for it. In my valuation of such a property, I substantiate cases like this that a buyer is most likely going to take the place completely in hand and that I take this into account in the asking price and expected return.
How to avoid this? Invite 2 or max 3 brokers for a sales proposal with valuation and do NOT steer in this. See if the values line up with 1 and if there is a substantial discrepancy, ask that particular broker for justification.
Remember: rather bet too low, than too high. Put your to low, then through market forces the market will automatically pay more for your home if it’s really worth it.
There is a quarrel
When sales are made by heirs, we sometimes see that there are arguments. The market would like to buy the property, but because the heirs are in conflict, the property cannot be sold.
More expensive segment
Also, a property may be in an expensive and exclusive segment. The real crowds are found in homes up to approx. €700,000 euros. Homes that are way above that with the asking price have a more limited target market. There is less pressure to have to view the property today and put down an offer as early as tomorrow. These homes often have a longer selling period.
The house is already sold
It often happens that a home has been sold for a long time, but the real estate agent does not yet indicate this online or offline. The property should be put on “sold with reservation” when the legal reflection period has ended. This is by no means always done neatly on time. Sometimes they even wait until all the resolutive conditions are worked out. Reasons for this may include:
-The broker would like to continue to recruit candidates in case the sale does not go through
-The real estate agent wants to keep the property still on “for sale” as filler for his window and website.
-It is forgotten due to busyness.
What can I do?
Before you go all in on the house, think about how you can renovate it and discuss it with everyone, ask your buying agent to check if the house is still for sale. No buying agent? Then call the sales agent yourself.