FOR SALE BY OWNER

So I have a house for sale.  And it has been for sale for a while.  Years.  Literally years.

It isn’t a bad house, but apparently it hasn’t been the right house for anyone either. 

It is in a good location, it has good curb appeal, is in an appealing school district and it has some nice features not found in most homes in the area.  However, I’ll admit it needs some updating (it was built in 1996) and I’m being a little greedy with the price (maybe 5% greedy).  I could probably sell it a lot faster if I was willing to invest in some updates or drop the price or market it more aggressively.  But I choose not to because I know my offer is reasonable and that a buyer, the buyer, could show up tomorrow.  I could see it being great for a young couple, possibly a growing family or even some empty nesters.

Based on follow up with realtors that have shown the house, I’ve learned that it has been the second choice of several buyers.  However, one wanted a larger garage and another fell in love with a different kitchen.  I’ve been close to getting a contract several times, but as we learned from Ricky Bobby, "If you ain’t first, you’re last."  And so I sit on my house, waiting for a buyer, refusing to invest in the changes I keep believing I can avoid.  Meanwhile, I’m paying more and more interest on the mortgage every month that I can’t avoid.

Are you mismanaging selling your product like I am mismanaging selling my house?

Does my house sound at all like your product sitting on a retailer's shelf?  Does it have a decent offer, one that tries to appeal to many, but is preferred most by no one?  Do you realize your packaging needs improvement, your product needs updating, the price should be tweaked a little bit or maybe you need to take action to drive greater awareness?  With my house, I just need to attract one buyer, but your product likely needs to attract thousands of buyers every week, if not every day.

While I may be able to continue sitting on my house, you can’t afford to sit on your product…because your Buyer won’t let you.  The opportunity to gain distribution at retail is coveted by many.  The window of time your item has to prove its value is narrow.  You can’t postpone fixing slow sales or the buyer will fix the issue for you (by deleting your item).

Is your product’s sales rate not sustainable?

What is keeping you from making changes to optimize your product offering?  Don’t know what shopper to target (beyond ‘anyone with a buck in their pocket’)?  Don’t know how to economically drive awareness and interest?  Don’t know what updates or improvements would have the biggest impact on sales?  If you already know the answers, start taking action today before your product drops below its minimum viable velocity (MVV) and gets deleted. 

Just don’t keep waiting.  Figure out what is holding back sales and fix it.