1. Your Home Is Over Priced

2. Your Home Doesn’t “Show” Well

3. You’re in a Bad Location

4. You Have a Lousy Listing Agent

5. You are Battling Competition or Market Condition

6. You Have Ineffective Marketing

Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, "There's a buyer for every home." But they often leave off the qualifier: "at the buyer's price."

The fact is, buyers -- not sellers -- ultimately determine the market value of a home. You can ask for the moon and set your listing price well above comparable properties in your neighborhood, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller, to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth.

Overpricing is the most common reason homes don't sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a process that often works against you. Here's why:

Most real estate agents, and hence most qualified buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced by as little as 5 percent, it will be duly noted and interest in your property will wane, especially if you show no intention of coming off your asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you manage to find a buyer at your inflated asking price, the property may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart.

A real estate agent may have suggested an inflated asking price to secure your listing (more on this in No. 4). Conversely, other real estate agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help sell their own listings ("Here's what they are asking. Now would you like to take a second look at that first house I showed you?")

If you have a house that really should be priced at $200,000 and you've got it listed at $260,000, you are trying to compete against homes that really are worth close to $300,000 and all of a sudden your home really is not competing, you want to compete with what is available out there among homes similar to yours.

If your home remains on the market for too long, agents and buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, perhaps more serious reasons why it isn't selling. People are aware that it has been on the market a long time and agents stop showing it.

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Face it: Even the best old house needs a little makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer.

The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a few attractive window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila! The place may look good enough to reconsider. A good real estate agent can advise you on where your time and money are best spent.

Price and condition are two things that the seller can do something about. I always give people my 'honey do' list. I think paint is probably a seller's best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh. If it's time to paint, it's time to paint. It's the best return on investment.

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Nothing has a greater impact on your home’s value than its location.  Home values jump thousands in value just two streets over in the next school district. If you're in one of the higher-ranked schools here in South Jersey, you're going to add $50,000 to $100,000 to the price of the same house,  The point is, location, location, location.

If your home's location is less than desirable, your options are somewhat limited. A good real estate agent will do his best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise.  The best way to compensate for a poor location is to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such as seller financing, seller concessions or a lease option with rent credit.

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Yes, they exist: Real estate agents who mislead, lie, and misbehave cost you $$$

Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time, money and the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7. The agent from hell will allow you to overprice your home ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with me!"), not market it properly (see No. 6), fail to screen for qualified buyers, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell their own listing, they don't have to split the commission) and keep you totally in the dark throughout the process. If your agent is abrasive, arrogant or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers.

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You have heard the terms “buyers market” and “sellers market” In real estate, market conditions are affected by any number of external forces, current interest rates, number of homes on the market, unemployment rates, public optimism or pessimism etc.

In a "hot" or seller's market, homes go fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered more than your listing price.

But in a "flat," "cold" or buyer's market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated (i.e., paying on two mortgages).

If you're trying to sell in a flat market, you're not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for less than top dollar, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings once again in your favor.

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Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing with the local multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer.

Today's top performers launch a multilevel marketing plan that includes listing tours for area agents, newspaper, TV ads, weekend open houses, listing fliers and placements in local real estate publications.

Computers and the Internet also have changed the face of real estate. According to the National Association of realtors, today more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for house hunting. The best real estate agents are computer-savvy. They have your listing in color on their laptops to show clients and communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working with out-of-town buyers.

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