Three Top Reasons Your Sacramento Home is Not Selling

If you’re wondering why your home in Sacramento is not selling, you’ve come to the right place. The likelihood is you are not one of my sellers but I imagine you could be. Just as you might imagine you could be. In fact, I had a seller yesterday who imagined just that, as he was NOT my seller but said he wanted to be. Well, he doesn’t really want to be a seller, you know, he wants to be a former owner. All sellers want to be a former owner.

Or, at least that’s what a Sacramento real estate agent would imagine. But some of us are capable of imagining all sorts of stuff because we’ve learned early in life that what one can imagine, one can probably create. It’s why we excel at marketing.

Yeah, out of the blue this guy calls as I’m driving back to my home office. Thank goodness my top wasn’t down (on my car). The guy was happy I answered my phone and said he was mad that his agent did not. Said he’s had his home listed for 3 months, the listing was expiring today, and his agent doesn’t return calls or emails and simply ignores him. I tell him I’m sorry; I don’t know his agent. Then he admits his agent is the brother of his sister-in-law, or some such, what we call a DNA agent. Would I puhhhhhlease help him?

OK, sure, I’ll take a look at his listing when I get to my office. In the meanwhile, I tell him there are 3 reasons typically why a home is not selling:

1. Price
2. Condition
3. Marketing

I pull up the listing in MLS and spot one photo — a bad quality photo — and no interior photos. The confidential agent remarks say the seller will credit the buyer X amount of dollars for painting. Wow, that really makes this Sacramento real estate agent want to show the house. What great motivation.

Next, I examine the comparable sales. I can see how the agent determined the price. He priced it in line with the homes presently on the market, which all have long days on market, and all of which are significantly larger and appear to be in better condition. This home is not priced according to the comparable sales. It’s priced at least 10% too high.

Not to mention, it’s a small part-time broker who has the listing, who might not have much of a network at his disposal. At Lyon Real Estate, we have almost 1,000 agents with whom we network. I explain this to the seller when I call back and offer professional photography with my Nikon and wide-angle lens. In fact, I could take the key from the lockbox with his written permission.

Thanks, but no thanks, the guy says. He’s now talked with his agent and supplied him with all of my wonderful ideas, and he’s thinking about staying with him for a while. He doesn’t want me to do any more work for which I won’t get paid.

It’s nice that somebody is looking out for this Sacramento real estate agent. I didn’t get a chance to tell him there is a reason I am closing in on selling another 100 homes this year.