10 Reasons Buyers Are REJECTING Homes

[00:00:00]Every buyer looking at your home, they already know what you paid for it. They already know what day you bought that home and every time that you actually tried to sell your home. Three taps on a phone and that's all they're available for them. A seller called me earlier on this year. They had showings happening on their properties. They weren't getting any offers. There was nothing wrong with the house, per se. His asking price was $140,000 over what he paid for it in 2021, though. And the buyers, they can see that they aren't rejecting his house. They were actually just rejecting the math that he was using to list his property. Today, we're going to talk about 10 reasons that buyers reject homes in 2026, and almost none of them are actually about the house itself.

[00:00:46]Number seven is something that kills deals all the time at the lawyer's desk after the offer has actually taken place. So, before you list your home, you need to see your home's record the way I do. That way you are looking at it from the lens of a potential buyer. So you put yourself in the best position to actually sell your home if you're going to take it to market. Now the first four rejections, they actually happen in a spreadsheet. Believe it or not, your kitchen never gets a vote on it. You've done all these renovations, but they actually don't even get considered in these first four. The first one is buyers. They actually shop payments more often than not than the actual prices of the home. Stress tested buyers are going to build one number, the monthly all-in mortgage, including their taxes, their fees, utilities. So, a million-doll condo townhouse with $600 a month fees, it's going to lose to $1.2 million freehold. So, if your home does carry one of these big fees, like big taxes, big maintenance fee, you're going to be losing a lot of the times because of the monthly payment. This isn't even a number that you're going to see on the listing itself. The second reason they're walking away is they already know what you paid for it. Every single sale is now public data. Bought in 2021 at the peak asking $140,000 more than what you bought it for. No rental, no receipts. The buyer, they call that the seller needs money or the seller is not in a good financial position type of pricing. They are not going to be saving you from the life raft that you're living on right now. They don't negotiate with it. They're going to screenshot this, move on, or maybe come back to you in six or even more months down the road once you've come down to the reality. The market is down 4% this year alone. Condos are down 9% price to the comps if you're going to put your home on the market and not your actual break even number. That's not part of the equation for listing your home.

[00:02:36]Buyers, they can see the difference literally on their phones every single time they are looking. The third reason, it's the relist game. I've played it myself with some clients, but it's a game that flags you because all of the information is public data. You terminate, you relist, you reset the days on market. So, you think you appear as a new listing. The buyer apps, they stitch it all together these days. March at 12 terminated. May at 180 terminated, July at whatever that new price is.

[00:03:09]That's a public diary for everybody to follow. and they are seeing how desperate the seller is becoming with every new change. And what they will do is actually not offer on your home because they know that if you're doing this very often, you are likely going to be doing it in the future again. So instead of them offering today, they'll just wait for your next price reduction.

[00:03:31]Now, one honest reposition if you're a seller is going to be three small ones.

[00:03:36]So, if you're going to make this adjustment, do it big. Do it right. Get yourself in front of more buyers. Prices strategically with what those barriers are on the search filter. So, if you're at 850, your next gap to get more buyers in that haven't already seen your property is sub800. So, $799. Be strategic if you're a seller. Don't go and drop it $20,000 and not actually increase your buyer pool and affect the the diary, so to speak, of what people can see you've done to your listing.

[00:04:05]Number four is the actual cheapest sale in your street now is your ceiling. The power of sale closes two doors down from you. Every buyer's agent is going to anchor your home's price to that, whether you like it or not. And so does the bank's appraiser. Even a buyer who loves your house, they can't outpay a low appraisal if that comes through.

[00:04:28]Distress on your street reprices your street's actual value. If there is a distress comp near you, deal with it in your pricing on day one or it's going to deal with you and in turn you're going to have to change your pricing in the future or in your negotiation with the potential buyer. Now, the next four we're going to talk about, they actually happen after the buyer says yes in their head to the property, including number seven, the lawyer's desk one that we talked about earlier. Number five, the lipstick flip. The gray vinyl plank, shaker doors, pot lights. You know the picture. You can picture right now with me. Buyers have flip fatigue. They've learned that 30 grand of cosmetics can actually hide some of the flaws in a property. So, they ask one thing. Where are the actual permits and the receipts for the work that was done? A flip with paper is a renovation. A flip without paper is actually just a costume on your property. If you renovated properly, weaponize that paperwork as a seller.

[00:05:29]Say, "Hey, I have those receipts. This is the company that did the work." Maybe there's a warranty. Have that present for those buyers. Otherwise, you're not going to get that money that you were hoping to get from your flip or your renovation. Number six, the legalish basement suite. Listings will say it all the time, legal apartment. or maybe they shouldn't say legal apartment, but buyers agents say, "Show me that file.

[00:05:52]Show me the city's approved it. Show me the permits, the registration, the electrical inspection, the fire separation. If there's no file, there's no suite." And the killer is, of course, buyers can only afford your home in a lot of cases because of the potential rental income. But if it's not a legal suite, they can actually count that potential rental income coming in.

[00:06:12]That's something to really keep your eye on. Number seven, here we go. The lawyer's desk. It's the status certificate. The condo owners, this one's for you. This is the one that you never see coming. The buyer's lawyer, they open the status certificate, the reserve fund, upcoming projects, special assessments, lawsuits, a deal that maybe survive that showing, then the negotiation, and then it dies on a PDF on a Tuesday afternoon. This is kind of the sad one because you're excited that the deal's moved on. likely that buyer's removed a few other conditions, maybe an inspection, maybe they've removed their financing and you order the status certificate and bam, doesn't have some good news on there. The buyer says, "I'm out of here. This looks like trash. I got to run." If you are selling a property, if you order the status or if you at least understand what's on your status before you list and if there's a problem, you can address it ahead of time. Find it first. Price around whatever that problem is instead of losing a deal on it in the future and extending the time that you actually have on the market.

[00:07:23]And number eight, mine it's getting worse as the days go on, but your nose, the nose knows all. It's the fastest rejection for some people, and it is the cigarette smell. buyers, they walk in a home that has had some cigarette, some pet smell, they cannot get over it. A lot of the time, the basement potentially being damp. If your home has any smells, anything that's a little bit of a odd odor, get it taken care of before your home hits the market. Don't have that be a part of why your home sits on the market and maybe checks all the other boxes for a potential buyer. In the past, I've had a few properties that had that smoky smell, couldn't get rid of it. Sellers still lived in the home. And let me tell you, hardest properties to sell. If you've got big dogs, wet dogs, that smell is something that definitely starts to bother people's nose. Handle that ahead of time. Prep yourself for the market and understand, hey, not everybody is going to love the smell of these things in the home. Now, the musty one in the basement. If you've got a basement and there's a little bit of an off smell, consider looking into that.

[00:08:31]What's that smell coming from? Is it just moisture that's kind of, you know, coming in through a window crack? Is there some mold? That kind of stuff is important for you to know ahead of time because if not, it's going to come out in a home inspection down the road once you have an agreement with an actual buyer. And then you'll be devastated when they have to ask for negotiation or just back out of the deal altogether.

[00:08:52]Now, the last two here aren't the house or the record. They're your rules.

[00:08:58]Sellers rejecting themselves. Believe it or not, this happens all the time.

[00:09:03]Number nine, you demand a firm offer.

[00:09:06]People still ask for it in today's market. And yes, sometimes we see bidding wars still, but no conditions was 2021, 2022. Now, today the buyers, they have all the leverage. They're going to have all the conditions they want. They're going to do what they need to do to make sure that the home is right for them because there is also probably six to 10 alternative properties. one tap away on their phone that they can go book an appointment for. They're not going to argue with you. They'll just go buy from a seller who's actually going to work with them and allow them to have the conditions that they want on their offer. And who's going to make the process a little bit smoother? And number 10 is that you held an offer date and guess what? Nobody actually showed up for it. Offer nights work sometimes when the buyer com when the buyers actually compete. But right now, 17,000 new listings, it's a lot. 6800 sales in one month. If you're going to hold an offer date in a market, make sure it's something that's going to work. Check what's happening in the areas that are nearby. We've got clients who are looking for a property in the Vaughn area and they keep getting inundated with the bidding situation on the buyer side. We tell them, "Be cautious. Don't go crazy. Don't remove your conditions. Protect yourself. But they're still happening in some markets.

[00:10:19]It doesn't mean the price is going to go crazy, but it does mean there's going to be a lot of competition and a lot of risk that's kind of put out there for you to remove your conditions or a lot of force in that sense. So, make sure you are protecting yourself on the buy side. And if you're a seller, only do it if it's going to work like it does in some of these areas. Now, we're done.

[00:10:39]That's the list of 10. And not one of those reasons is because your kitchen was outdated. Buyers, they're actually rejecting risk. Offer record that you cannot hide from them and rules that you insist on, which means it's fixable.

[00:10:56]Before you list your home, pull your own history. Price against the honest comparables that are out there. Don't make up a price based on what you need.

[00:11:05]Get that condo declaration early. Look at the status certificate. Know what you're up against. Walk it with a ruthless person who's got that big strong nose and get their honest opinion. Set terms for the market that actually exists right now, not the one that you sold in last time. The market isn't rejecting your house, it's rejecting your actual file. Fix the file. Want my eyes on your home? Let me know. Happy to give you my insight on what is best to suit your home before it hits the market. Thanks for watching this one and let me know in the comment section down below which one of these 10 things do you think is the most detrimental to actually getting your home sold.