Why your House Isn’t Selling & How to Fix It Step by Step

Last Updated: 24/07/2019

Today we’re going to show you how to reverse your house selling problem.

In fact the steps in this article helped dozens of our readers to go on and sell their house within 3-6 months.

In 2019, when it comes to selling your house the real challenge is trying to sell with lingering issues like Brexit which don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Puzzled homeowners often ask themselves questions like why is my house not selling? And why is my property stuck on the market?

In short there are answers to your questions and our experts will share their decades of experience on how to go about solving these correctly but first let’s take a look at some of the reasons why homes may struggle to sell.

6 Reasons your Home Won’t Sell (plus bonus content)

1) You do not have enough Estate Agents working for you

Every estate agent is different and it’s very important to pick one that caters towards the type of property you are selling. There are estate agents who are ‘too busy’ and this means they may not be able to dedicate as much time into selling your property as they should. You may also come across some estate agents who seem to have to much time but this could be because they have a track record of not being able to do their job properly so it would be a bad idea to pick them as well.

If you find yourself in this situation the best thing to do would be to try and find an estate agent who caters for the ‘middle ground’ so in short, their not super busy but at the same time they have enough customers to make them seem reliable enough to take on as agents.

Action Step: Sign up with at least 2 agents, a great way to find a good estate agent is to ask friends or family members who have already sold their homes for a recommendation.

After you’ve found one, if you still feel the need for them to prove themselves, you could get a friend to call the agents and pose as a potential buyer. Get your friend to describe your own property to the estate agent. If they mention your property then you can at least be sure they are doing their job – if not it’s time to switch!

Ultimately, if you do your research, you should be able to find the right estate agent for you.

2) Your photo selections can be improved as well as their lighting quality

If you are getting zero to no viewings on your house – this is probably why. Your first task is to check every place you have your property listed (both online and offline) and see if the photos are up to scratch.

Just put yourself in the position of a buyer and think:

‘”If I was interested in a property and saw these photo’s, would I want to pursue it further?”

You will get an instant feeling of whether they are good enough or not.

Action Step: If you feel you need to improve your photo’s, some things you can do before taking new ones include:

• Carefully choose your very best pictures only – you definitely do not have to cover every angle of the house but there should be enough to give an overall impression.
• For your best features, experiment with having only 1 great picture with an overall view, this means potential buyers may want to book a viewing to further inspect this nice feature (e.g. a beautiful garden).
• Tidy up your property beforehand.
• Reduce the clutter and increase lighting in key areas.
• Use a photo enhancement app to choose the best possible lighting for your images
• If you have some extra money, hire a professional photographer.

If for some reason you are still unsure, ask family and friends for a second opinion!

3) You have priced your home incorrectly

This is probably the most important and main reason most properties do not sell. It is very important to price your property realistically or it will always have a hard time selling. Generally speaking, you’re going to have to sell your house for slightly lower than the original asking price so for this reason most homeowners tend to add about 5% to the asking price because they expect to be haggled down somewhat anyway.

Action Step: How do I find the right price for my house? Your estate agent will help here but if for some reason you do not approve of their valuation you can do your own research and then take it from there. Check out properties on websites like Rightmove and look out for similar properties in your area. After this check how much they are on the market or how much they have sold for. This will give you a good idea on how much you can expect for your own.

4) Your home is not optimised for selling

If your home is in poor condition and doesn’t look appealing then it probably won’t sell and it’s as simple as that. Get your home looking as good as possible before putting it on the open market.

Action Step: Look at every room in your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. If there are any repairs that need doing, get them done. If a room needs a fresh lick of paint, do it before you book in any viewings. Also be sure to clean hard to reach areas such as behind the cupboards or under the fridge as buyers these days tend to check everything!

There will always be competition when you are looking to sell your home, you have to make your home stand out and not be like 90% of the other properties on the market. You should aim to be in that 10% of top properties in your pricing bracket to get your property the attention is deserves.

5) Your home is not being advertised effectively

Poor marketing and advertising is another major reason why  you may not be getting viewings on on your house. Experts often say only half of a sale is getting your home looking good. The only half is getting the home in front of the right people and it makes total sense. If your is being advertised to the wrong crowd or worse it’s not being advertised enough then it’s not going to sell.

Action Step: Make sure your property is at the very least being advertised on Rightmove and your own estate agents website/inside office. To take it a step further you can advertise your property on other big property websites such as Zoopla and Onthemarket.

Furthermore, you can do some advertising yourself by promoting your house on social media platforms like facebook as well as some offline advertising. For example, you could try printing out flyers promoting the sale of your property and have them distributed or advertised in local stores or newspapers.

Related: 39 Reasons why homebuyers won’t buy your house

6) You are selling your home at the wrong time

There are times during the year when house purchases slow down so it makes sense not to sell during this time, for example, fewer people tend to sell during the winter. At the same time there are periods during the year dubbed ‘the best time to sell a house‘ so  it can make sense to sell during that particular period due it being the most popular time when home owners tend put their property on the market.

Action Step: Consult your estate agent beforehand and ask them when the best time to list your property is.

If the market is just generally slow because of other factors then you may want to hold out with the sale of your property completely until things start to pick up again.

Fewer homes continue to be sold in the UK year on year

Over the last 5 years excluding 2016 every other year has managed to sell more houses than in 2018-2019 & 2019-2020

Source: Housing Statistics – https://www.gov.uk/

Our homes are places of comfort. They are places we see as safe and often seek refuge when things aren’t going well. Homes are filled with memories so when we finally do all the legwork and get it onto the market only to find you are not getting any viewings it can be very stressful.

It’s not uncommon these days for homes to have been on the market for months with zero viewings. Similarly, you may find other homes that have only been on the market for a short while but have had a number of viewings. Whatever your situation they take away point is both homes have yet to be sold and this is a problem.

At the start of the year RIC’s predicted house prices will stagnate in 2019 and sales will fall. We’re half way through the year now and based on current figures they seem to have predicted correctly.

Clearly the 8 points we mentioned above aren’t the only reasons why houses are not selling at the moment or don’t sell in 2019 specifically.

Economic factors out of our control such as interest rates and consumer confidence weigh heavily on the UK property market which make it all the more difficult to sell a property.

Bonus Tips

7) Your homes kerb appeal is not up to scratch

What is Kerb appeal? Kerb appeal in the context of selling a house is how attractive it looks from the outside or when viewed from the street.

The old saying ‘first impressions matter‘ couldn’t make more sense when talking about curb appeal. Homeowners often put all their focus on beautifying the inside of their home and forget that the first thing a potential buyer will actually see is the exterior which includes the garden and exterior walls.

If the kerb appeal is not up to scratch, you as a seller will be on the back foot from the get go because the person you’re trying to sell to already has a negative image of your house before they even set foot inside your property!

Action Step: Some easy things you can do to create & improve on kerb appeal include:

• Add flowers or greenery to your garden.
• Re-paint and number your door.
• Repair stonework on your driveway and surrounding areas.
• Add lighting and porch furniture.

It’s important homeowners work on improving kerb appeal to boost their chances of a house sale.

8) Your home is too personalized for viewings

When a prospect comes to visit your home they’re not looking to keep things as they are. They will be looking at your home as a blank canvas where they can input their own styles and designs to make the home their own. It’s one of the many reasons why renovation experts paint any homes they intend to sell on in neutral colors – It makes it easier for potential buyers to envision what their own home could look like.

Action Step: Before you start letting people view your home try to put away as many personal belongings as possible. This includes things like children’s toys, personal photo’s & religious items.

Is there anything else I can do?

The 8 reasons and solutions we’ve provided above will more than likely give your property a better chance of being sold so we highly recommend trying to implement some of them.

If that wasn’t enough, our experts have also put together a list of things you can do to boost the chances of a sale in general. With this not only will know why your home is struggling to sell but also some things you can add to increase the likelihood of a sale! Let’s look at some of them below.

A Final Word

There is still so much uncertainty regarding the UK property market and with lingering issues like Brexit it’s difficult to predict whether it will improve any time soon.

Selling your home is a big task, however our team is confident that if you include even a few of the points we’ve mentioned in our lists you’re more than likely to boost the chances of a sale.

Remain proactive throughout the whole selling process and eventually you’ll receive a worthy off and all your hard work will have paid off!

Are you having a particular issue with selling your property on the market? Let us know in the comments below!