FAQ - My house is listed but we’re getting no visits; what's wrong?

Understanding the Real Estate Process from A – Z – A Seller’s Guide to Real Estate – Part 6

This is the sixth post of a series in an FAQ format that I hope will help would be sellers better understand the real estate process that they are about to go through. There will be a follow-on series for real estate buyers.

FAQ - My house is listed but we’re getting no visits; what's wrong? Should I consider firing my agent?

My initial response is that you should not panic; but, rather, listen to your agent, not fire them. Of course, that assumes that you followed my advice in the first post and got a GOOD Realtor® as your listing agent. If, instead, you got an agent who went along with whatever price you threw out to list the place, just to get the listing; maybe it’s time to have a heart-to-heart and this time listen to the

advice that the Realtor has been trying to give you about the market value of your house. If it was the Realtor that advised that you set the price that high, maybe it’s time to assert yourself a bit and insist that he/she get the price more in line with the market, so that you can attract some visitors. There are some Realtors who think so much of themselves that they think they can justify above market pricing, just based upon the strength of their name in the market. In those cases, your Realtor may need to listen to you. The single biggest issue that causers low or no showings is price. Listen to your Realtor.

Houses that are obviously overpriced just scare away would-be buyers because they don’t want to try to deal with an unrealistic owner/seller. It’s also time to stop bullying your agent about everything, including the price. You may be a very intelligent and successful person in whatever field it is that you work; however, unless you are also an active and practicing Realtor, you are not the expert in this situation. Let the expert give you advice and lead you in this transaction. Listen to your Realtor.

You might also pause and ask yourself if you are trying to micro-manage the process. Your Realtor will welcome your support for their marketing plan and would welcome your ideas so long as they don’t feel that you are looking over their shoulders and breathing down their necks all the time. Even if you are the Director of Marketing at some successful company, you are out of your element in the real estate world and have to trust the knowledge and experience that your GOOD Realtor brings to this process. Go ahead and make your suggestions, but remember to listen to your Realtor. Real Estate is a unique “product” to market and many of the marketing things that work for other products just don’t work well for real estate. Listen to your Realtor.

If you haven’t already had an open house, talk to your Realtor about doing one of those soon. If your Realtor presented a Marketing Plan before you chose him/her, ask what they have been able to accomplish from that plan so far and what they still have in the queue. It’s OK to try to be a helpful partner with your Realtor in the marketing of the property, but remember who is the pro here and listen to your Realtor.

Look back over the advice that the realtor gave you about things that needed to be done to help with

the marketing of the house, especially those things that might have been aimed at the exterior of the house. Curb appeal, or lack of it, can have a big impact on whether people who do drive-byes first actually ever visit the property. Go back and do the things that the Realtor suggested to clean up the lard and landscaping or to repair or paint things that can be seen from the curb. Listen to your Realtor.

Don’t wait too long. The Golden Time for listing is usually within the first 4-6 weeks. That’s when the visit traffic should be the highest and when quick offers usually happen. If you’ve gone 2-3 weeks with no showings, act now, before your listing goes “stale” on the market. Get with your Realtor and come up with a plan of action to make the changes that will be necessary to get traffic flowing through the house. Be bold, not wimpy. If you are overpriced by $20,000 or more, taking a thousand off at a time, in hopes that this will get things moving, is what we in real estate call “death by a thousand cuts”. It is better to bite the bullet and do a $10,000 reduction right away than to try to dribble the price down a thousand at a time to where the market will react positively. Listen to your Realtor.

Did I mention that it is important that you listen to your Realtor?