Dave,

Our house is priced right, it has received great feedback, great staging on the reviews and 19 showings in 2 weeks. No offers…what now?

Art, location withheld

Art,

AWESOME question! First, hats off to your real estate agent…19 showings in 2 weeks during Christmas and New Year is incredible. You should really take a minute, if you have not already done so, and thank them for their work. I am honestly a little afraid to print this question as some of my clients may wonder what I am doing wrong and wonder why they are not getting 19 showings in 2 weeks. Generating traffic during that 2 week period is not easy! That being said, you have a couple options and some things to ponder.

It is clear from the traffic that your home shows well and is appealing to online home buyers, so you can feel confident that the online pictures are doing their job. It is also clear that your price must appear very reasonable, heck even a pretty good deal, or you would not have the revolving door syndrome that you are currently living through. I do wonder if you have had any 2nd showings? If you have, then that would change things a bit…for the better. It sounds like your feedback has been very good, bordering on complementary and that is typically a wonderful sign. From what limited information that has been provided, everything pretty much smells like roses and if EVERYTHING smells like roses you would have received a contract, right?

Statistically speaking a home seller should receive an offer after somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 showings, on average. I have always evaluated our listings using about 12 showings as the bar for an offer, but sometimes as few as 8 or as many as 15 depending on the feedback. From your feedback I would say you are right to be pondering your next step. I have heard this said, and I have since repeated it many times, you can control three things in real estate….condition, marketing and price. After those three things, there is not much you can control in the home selling process so I would do my best to focus on those three things and let everything else sort itself out. It sounds like your home is being marketed properly or you would not have had 19 showings. Your home must be in good condition or you would be hearing things like “deferred maintenance”, “dirty”, “cluttered” or “needs a little TLC”. It is clear you are not hearing this, so the condition of your home must be very good. This leaves price as the only other thing you can control!

Ugh…the dreaded price discussion. I know…you said your house is priced right! Typically knowing what little you have told me I would battle you on this, but honestly with 19 showings in 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year, it must appear to the consumer to be “priced right” or they would not come like lemmings marching to the cliff. If it’s in good condition, it’s showing 1.5 times a day over the slowest 2 weeks of the year and is “priced right” why is it not selling? Actually that is a very good question! I would guess that you have a specific property feature, whether it be floor plan obsolescence, too many stairs, a busy road, un-kept/ugly neighbor, barking dogs from neighboring yards or whatever odd thing you can think of that is holding your home back and ultimately none of these are easily fixed. All of these items boil down to one of two things…price or patience.

“At this juncture I would encourage guarded patience and if you have had one or two second showings, I would feel even better that you just need to find the right butt for the saddle.”

At this juncture I would encourage guarded patience and if you have had one or two second showings, I would feel even better that you just need to find the right butt for the saddle. If it’s a busy road, then you need a buyer from a big city. If it’s barking dogs, you need a dog lover or someone hard of hearing. If it’s too many stairs, you need people who see stairs as a fitness aid. I hope you see where I am going. You just need the right butt for your saddle and sometimes it just takes a little more time than we would anticipate or want. If you do not have the time or the patience, then adjust your price and get it sold! My bet is you are not very far off and your buyer is closer than you may think. Hang in there a bit longer and I bet you find the perfect fit for your saddle.

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team