Your decision to move home is not one taken lightly and you’ve probably done a lot of soul-searching and organising to get to this point of actually putting your house on the market.

If, then, your home is just not selling, and particularly if it doesn’t show any signs of selling – no offers, no positive comments following viewings, or very few viewings – it can be soul destroying.

It can seem like every other house in the neighbourhood is selling, except yours!

You’re ready to move, so why isn’t your property selling?!

There are a million possible explanations, from your home being priced too high, targeting the wrong types of buyers, poor marketing by the estate agent, to lack of preparedness for viewings, or it being a hard-to-mortgage property.

Many of the reasons your home is languishing on the market can be fixed. And, many come down to the quality of the marketing and estate agent’s efforts, which is why our first step, in our 5 steps to take when selling your home is: speak to your agent.

Don’t despair if your house isn’t budging on the market

Here’s our 5-step guide to getting your home sold:

1. Talk to your agent

If your home isn’t selling, it’s time for a deep and meaningful discussion with your estate agent. Don’t be afraid to ask the questions you need answering, their opinion on why it’s not selling, and the specifics of what they are doing to sell your home.

• Is your home being proactively marketed, introduced directly to potential buyers rather than reactively waiting for them to find it on the national portals?
• Are the photos good enough and presenting your property in the right way?
• Have you discussed why you’ve loved living the property with them and are they reflecting these benefits and features in their marketing?
• Is your property hard to mortgage? If so, is this reflected in the price?
• Are they noting the comments from viewings? What are those comments?
• Are they marketing your property to attract the right types of buyers?

Your estate agent is an expert in their field and should understand what sells and what holds a property back from selling. Selling houses should be their core skill.

If their advice is simply around a price adjustment, then ask them for comparable properties in your area that lead them to giving you this advice. Be satisfied that the advice they give stacks up – not just about price, but other factors that might be holding your house sale back. Are they really professional photographs? What are they doing to promote your property? Explore all the variables and see if they can offer a way forward.

2. Get a second opinion

If no way forward is forthcoming from your agent, speak to another, not just about your property but about trends in the market in your local area. What is their view on what buyers are looking for at the moment? Is your property a good fit? If not, why not? And could it be made to be a good fit?

Talk to other agents about the issues with your property not selling and take the time to understand how they may be able to help you take the sale of your property forward.

Compare the advice from agents and if a second opinion from one of them seems more viable, you should, without doubt, consider moving agents.

3. Check your contract

In the enthusiasm of getting your property onto the market, you may not have gone into the small print of the contract with your current agent. Now is the time to do that. Before you make the decision to change agents, it is vital you check the all-important contract.

Is there a minimum marketing period? Are there any termination fees? What notice period do you have to give?

Make sure you are in the know about exactly what you’ve signed up to so there are no unpleasant surprises.

Checking the contract may also give you important information about the activity the agent signed up to, to undertake to sell your home. It could be a case of questioning if they did what they contractually said they would.

4. Decide your next step

It may sound brutal, but in the case of most properties, and the market being what it is at the moment, if your home has been on sale for over two months with no movement, you need to switch agents, if you can.

As soon as possible, you need to find an estate agent whose priorities are aligned to yours and makes selling your home their number one goal.

5. Making the switch

Make sure you run to the end of your contract with your current agent. It’s preferrable to make sure there is no ambiguity as to when potential buyers were introduced to your property. And, preferably, leave a week or so between agents so your property is launched fresh back onto the market, as a new interesting option for buyers. Don’t end with your agent one day and start with another the very next.

Be sure, also, to act on any recommendations made by your new agent when it comes to dressing and showcasing your home, or making any repairs, furniture changes, etc. that, in their opinion, will go down well with buyers.

Remember, agents know the buyers out there and are likely to have heard many of their comments, concerns, likes and dislikes regarding properties they’ve seen in your area already.

No recommendation is too small to act upon – think detail!

Take action!

Our 5 steps should give you a good basis for a plan of action. What’s most important is not to bury your head in the sand and hope your home will just sell eventually.

Remember – take action to maximize your opportunities for that all-important sale.

Until next time.