Property not selling – what are my choices?

Fix the problems that are preventing you from selling

There are a number of problems that can be preventing your home from selling, and some of them are completely out of your control. For example, it could simply be a slow time in the property market and that’s a factor that you have no choice but to accept or you could be selling your house with sitting tenants.

But for other issues that are hindering your home from selling, you do have choices for fixing them. They can range from major to minor, and the corrective steps can either be quick and low-cost or no-cost, or they might be time consuming or expensive to address.

You’ve got bad pictures in your property listing

Check the photographs that accompany your property listing, because bad photos can turn people off from even requesting a viewing. You want to avoid photographs that make rooms look dark or that fail to show off much space your place has available. It’s a simple fix for this problem, because you can take new pictures that show your home in a better light and should help to attract more potential buyers.

Your home is dirty or cluttered house

When you are trying to sell your home it’s imperative that you keep the property neat and tidy and remove any clutter. Having too many of your personal items littered around your house or flat can make the rooms seem smaller than they actually are. You can address this problem quickly and easily by reorganising the rooms and getting rid of unnecessary items, in order to make your home look more enticing.

The price you’re asking is not right

Whether you’ve researched your sale price yourself using resources like the HM Land Registry – which has an index of registered house sale prices in England and Wales – or whether your estate agent suggested the price, if you’re not getting any bids it might be set too high. If your home is priced far above other similar properties it’s unlikely to sell, so you might need to consider setting a lower asking price.

Your garden makes the home unattractive

Another visual flaw that can make it harder to sell your home is having an untidy or overgrown garden. It’s one of the first things that people see when they are going on a viewing, and an unattractive garden can be a negative factor for many people. With a little gardening work, you can make it look presentable for selling.

Consider alternative methods for selling your home

If you’d rather end your listing with the estate agent and consider another option for selling, the good news is that you have several choices that might help make a quicker sale.

One option is to list your house or flat for auction, a process through which an auctioneer will take care of listing and marketing your home at a minimum opening bid price that you have agreed on. The benefit of selling through auction is that you’ll get a specific date for selling, because once the auction takes place the sale is considered legally binding.

The downside of proceeding with an auction is that the starting bid price is typically set lower than most homeowners would prefer. The reason the auctioneer does this is to generate interest in the property with the hope of prompting a competitive round of bids that drives up the final sale price. But be cautious of this approach because you might only receive the opening bid and have to settle for a price far lower than you had hoped for your home.

You’ll also have to pay an auctioneer fees, so bear that in mind because you’ll have to subtract the total cost of the fees from whatever final sale bid you receive.

Another alternative to selling through an estate agent is to work with a reputable property buying company. These businesses work by making speedy and competitive cash offers to buy houses and flats without charging any fees, typically through a very straightforward process.

Selling to a property buying company therefore helps you to secure a fast sale and also avoids having to pay fees that an estate agent or auctioneer would charge you.