Why isn’t my Orlando house selling? 9 hacks to success
The reason why your home isn’t selling in Orlando is because you aren’t employing the industry secrets that will get the job done. But before you read on, you should know that there is no difference between the home price sold through a realtor and the home price sold as FSBO (For Sale By Owner). According to a study that was done by the National Bureau of Economic Research, FSBO houses are sold for the same price when they are listed on free online FSBO websites. This study goes on to say that the only added benefit of selling through a realtor is that homes sell faster.
With that said, if you know the information that realtors get in their training at realtor school, you can successfully sell your house by yourself in a short time. Plus, you will actually SAVE thousands of dollars because you won’t be paying a 6% commission to the selling and buying agents.
If you are now using a realtor and your home just isn’t selling, this article is for you too. Just start using the strategies in this article and you can increase your chances of getting your home sold.
1) Staging Secrets
If your house is vacant you need to stage it with furniture. If you haven’t moved out yet you can make your house look a lot better by reassembling your furniture. Why? Because according to one study by Redfin, having a staged house earns $11,306 more than showing a vacant house.
This is because potential buyers need help in imagining themselves living in your home. For major cities like Orlando, Florida the added profit reaches around $14,000 on average. Maybe your house isn’t selling because until now you haven’t worked this fact into your asking price.
For those of you who really need to move your furniture out soon, you might want to consider moving only half out. This will work to your benefit because it will allow your house to look more spacious. Though you want to sell your home soon and prepare accordingly, this strategy will reduce the stress of a full scale moveout in a single day.
As for your walls and ceilings make sure that your paint isn’t pure white or way over to the other side of the color spectrum like yellow or pink. Having a neutral color like a soft white or light beige can help potential buyers connect with your home better.
By the way, pictures of your children and pets on the wall won’t help them feel ownership. Be sure to take these things down and pack away all personal keepsakes that add too much of a unique flavor.
For busy people who don’t have a lot of time to spend on planning for staging there is a valuable resource at www.padstyler.com. There you can upload pictures of each of your rooms for a small fee to find professional looking staging options. The staging renderings are superimposed onto your pictures automatically, giving you new perspectives that could help you decorate for success.
2) Scent Secrets
You probably have heard that it’s a good idea to have a fresh smelling house and are tempted to get an electric aroma unit at your local Walmart. But I tell you to stay away from that because those units emit too strong of a scent and you will be left with the stigma that you’re covering up something.
The best thing to do is clean really well and THEN try to add some air freshener. When choosing the scent take into account the season that you are in. Maybe a pine scent would go well in a winter month and a flower scent would be nice for spring. If you are a smoker you really need to contact a real estate investor and sell your house directly to him.
I’m making this point about selling to a real estate investor because covering up a smoke scent really is not something that you or a realtor can or should try to handle. In this situation, understand that you need to deduct money from the selling price so the investor can buy materials and pay for labor to make the house smelling like new. Without professional help, it would be a fool’s errand to put your house on the market.
3) Renovation Secrets
Maybe your house isn’t selling because you think that buyers will overlook the areas that need repairs. Your logic is that since you’ve taken the asking price lower than comparable prices in the neighborhood that a buyer will be interested.
This is a wrong assumption because 95% of all buyers say that they want a turnkey home with no need for repairs. Only about 19% say that they would buy a house that needed repairs if there was a large price discount.
Since Orlando is a buyers market you really need to up your game when it comes to the issue of buyer expectations. This means that if you don’t have the money for renovations you should reach out to a real estate investor who specializes in invasive renovation projects. You will save yourself time so you can focus on the next stage of life in your new home.
4) Listing Secrets
Real estate sales researcher Paul Anglin did a study on the effectiveness of online listings and was surprised at the results. He found that when a certain group of words were used, the selling price of the home was consistently higher. These words most often promoted external beauty instead of value. In fact, one of the words in this list is ‘beautiful’. See a truncated list below.
• beautiful
• gorgeous
• maple
• granite
• gourmet
• state-of-the-art
• move in condition
• space
• garden
• landscaping
• turnkey
This study is especially important because it proves that the ‘value’ words or words showing strong intent to sell should bring a price up but don’t. The words below are to be avoided.
• needs TLC
• moving must sell
• motivated
• vacant
• charming
• cute
• great neighbor
• fantastic
• basement
• foreclosure
* Interestingly, using the value words ‘handyman special’ caused a house to sell much faster but lowered the selling price substantially.
If you internalize this section you will understand that the verbiage inside your MLS or FSBO online listing could be the most important thing to consider. If mastered, it could be the easiest way to increase your property value.
5) Realtor Secrets
For you FSBO people who are tired and plan on using a realtor to sell your house, you should take the section above about listing verbiage to heart. There’s a chance that your listing won’t be done well because of your real estate agent’s inexperience. Inexperience can translate into other symptoms as well. Maybe he’ll be good at marketing but not yet proficient at sales or vice-versa. Maybe he will be dealing with too many clients and can’t multi-task.
Whatever the case may be, if you find yourself in a position where your house isn’t selling because of an inexperienced real estate agent there’s a good chance that you’ll have yourself to blame. About 78% of Americans contract with the first real estate agent they meet. The rationale behind this unfounded trust is the name brand of the real estate agent’s company or the fact that the agent is officially accredited to sell homes.
Basically, if you have contracted an ineffective agent to sell your home, you will have a 6 month period before you can hire a new one. You can sell your house directly to someone that you found during this time but you will still have to pay a commission to your agent. In a situation like this people feel sucker punched, especially when they have to sell their house quickly on their own initiative.
6) Photo Secrets
Did you have a professional photographer take them or did you do it with your cell phone? If you saw the difference in quality between both you would not hesitate to upload the pictures that the photographer took.
How they achieve such amazing results is the fact that each picture is shot 3 times within a few milliseconds. Each of the 3 versions are virtually identical but edited in different ways and then combined into one picture. This makes the flaws vanish while accentuating the rich colors of the spectrum.
Since the majority of buyers are looking at your house for the first time online there is really no reason to upload cheap cell phone pictures. In fact, the photographer will take pictures from angles that you didn’t even think of. He’ll even shoot outdoors using the right blend of sunlight.
The only thing you need to remind the photographer of is that too many pictures is better than not enough.
7) Pricing Secrets
OK, for the last 3 months you’ve asked yourself why your house isn’t selling and others in your Orlando suburb have. It’s possible that you’ve arrived at the conclusion that you’ve priced your home too high. If you’ve used a real estate agent you can have your MLS asking price taken down.
Those of you who have used Zillow, Redfin or Trulia can do the same by yourself. But the problem is that you will still be at a disadvantage because potential buyers will see that your house hasn’t sold for a while.
What you should have done in the beginning is look at the comparable prices of surrounding homes and priced your home a little lower. Now that it’s too late for that you need to think of another strategy.
Maybe some of you are going though a divorce. Some are trying to avoid a foreclosure and others are dealing with a job relocation. Whatever your situation is, you need to sell your house quickly by calling a real estate investor.
If you’ve decided to take the step of working with a real estate investor your time trying to sell your house works to your advantage. Why? Because you will have an intimate knowledge of what your house in Orlando is really worth. After your sale you will have cash in your pocket instead of cash leaving your pocket in the form of mortgage payments and taxes.
8) Title and House Lien Secrets
Sometimes owners are surprised at what pops up when a title search is done. It’s an awful feeling to find out that the house you thought you owned hasn’t been properly put in your name. Especially with inheritance properties this can be a problem and that’s why sellers are eager to call a real estate investor to help them sort out everything and get the property sold.
Title searches can also turn up liens that the homeowner never new about. I know of a few instances where people had code violations that just kept accruing. Since they lived remotely they weren’t informed of the problem and now they are faced with making a lot less money at closing.
Sometimes title issues and liens are so complicated that most real estate investors will run the other way. It takes someone who is experienced and patient to navigate through the legalities and produce a favorable result. By definition, a real estate investor is a problem solver and you need to work with someone who fits that mold.
A realtor is not a problem solver because that’s not what they are trained to be. Plus, they know that learning the ropes about title issues and tax liens takes them away from other deals that can earn them a commission quicker. So the takeaway for you by reading this section is knowing who to work with should encumbrances arise during a title search.
9) The Secret of Getting Things Done
You probably found this article because you’ve put your house on the Orange County market either through a realtor or by yourself and you haven’t sold it yet. A few months ago I was talking to a friend who was in the same situation and he did one thing that fixed the problem. He put a bandit sign in his front yard and a week later he found a buyer. Actually, the buyer found him. Did you get that? He put forth the effort so that his answer could find him, not the other way around.
Even if you will have to pay a commission to your real estate agent through the sale, you have to own the problem and take charge. With knowledge about your market conditions you can comfortably reach out to a real estate investor and make plans with an assurance of a good outcome.
Conclusion
There are many people in Orlando, Florida who are trying to sell their home but can’t. Whether they are selling through a realtor or FSBO (For Sale By Owner), there are lesser known but effective hacks that anyone can implement. For those who are struggling in a difficult market and/or have little time to sell, we recommend dealing with a competent and proactive real estate investor who can make time to understand your situation.