What to do if Your Listing Expires?
Have you gotten your home ready for the market? Done small repairs, spent time with your realtor, left the house on numerous occasions for viewings and yet your house still hasn’t sold? We understand how frustrating this can be, but don’t give up! In this post we will cover what to do if your listing expires.
Find Out What the Problem is
The very first thing you want to do is figure out what the problem is. If you don’t, then any changes you make to your listing may not be conducive to your desired results, which is getting your home sold!
Pricing is usually the issue when a home is on the market for a long time. Start by looking at your asking price and then find out how many showings versus how many offers you received. If you didn’t receive a lot of offers, it could be that buyers felt like the house was over priced for its value.
Since owners have an emotional attachment to their homes, they tend not to look at price in an analytical way, only how they feel their home should be priced. Ask your realtor for an updated market analysis which will allow you to compare your home to others that are similar in the area. This way you can see what other houses are selling for or are listed as. The numbers will give you a good idea as to whether or not your house is priced right.
A market analysis will also give you insight into the value other houses offer in your price range so you can view your home through the eyes of buyers and see if your home stands out from others on the market. Comparable houses are your competition and you want your home to receive offers, not other homes!
What kind of market you’re in also plays a role into how quickly your house will sell. Ask your realtor if you’re in a buyers or sellers market. If you’re in a buyer’s market, then there are more houses for sale than there are buyers, so buyers can pick and choose; buyers hold the ‘power’ in this market. You need to be very strategic and competitive in your pricing in this market.
If you’re in a sellers market, then there are more buyers than there are houses on the market. If your home isn’t selling in a seller’s market, you definitely need to find out why. Make the necessary adjustments asap and get your house sold!
Now let’s assess your marketing. Did you use professional photographs to market your home? Believe it or not, the photos of your home make a huge difference!
The pictures of your home posted online are the first impression for buyers. If buyers don’t like what they see online, they won’t scheduling viewing. Even if your home is stunning in person, buyers won’t get a chance to see your home if your marketing isn’t great.
You also need to ask your realtor what kind of marketing they are using to get your home advertised and seen. How are they getting your listing in front of people? If your realtor isn’t doing enough marketing, then this could be the reason why your house isn’t being shown.
There are a few other reasons why your home is sitting on the market. Have you been saying no to offers? Go through all the offers you’ve received and see why you rejected them.
If you got more than one offer below your asking price, this could be a sign that your home is not priced realistically to sell. As we mentioned before, sit down with your realtor, go over comparables, and see what your home should be priced as. Make adjustments as needed.
Also, are you saying no to showings? Unfortunately, if you say no to showings this could be a reason why you aren’t getting offers. People want to see your house before they make an offer! Give yourself the advantage and make sure your house can be seen. Reassess how important it is to you that your house sells and keep that in mind when inconvenient showing requests come in.
What You Can Do
Make a price adjustment on your home! Like we said in the previous section, sit down with your realtor and look at the comparative market analysis. Make sure your house isn’t overpriced compared to other similar houses in the area.
Reprice your home if you want it sold. Did you know that even if you have a price reduction your house may take longer to sell than if you had priced it correctly when it was first listed? Be sure to price your home according to the market value and not what you think it’s worth. Get some professional advice and data before setting a listing price.
It may seem counterintuitive, but sometimes if you price your home less than the market asking price, you can generate more interest. A lot of times this will result in multiple offers, which means that motivated buyers will want their offer to be the best!
When you receive more offers, you increase the opportunity to receive more than your asking price, which may balance out to the market price of your home or higher!
Another thing you can do is make cosmetic fixes. Make changes to your home like repainting the walls a neutral color, adding lights so your house isn’t dark, and decluttering your house so that buyers can see the house instead of all of your belongings! You can also remove personal items so buyers feel like it’s a blank canvas and can envision themselves in it.
Make sure your house has curb appeal so buyers are excited to walk inside. And once inside, did you know that most buyers care the most about the kitchen and master bathroom? Make sure these areas stand out!
Also, make sure your house is clean! Another reason your house hasn’t sold may have to do with the smell. If you have pets, make sure they aren’t the issue! Click here to learn how to sell your home with pets.
Sit down with your realtor and look at the marketing for your listing. Make sure you’ve had professional photos taken. Read the listing description to see if it needs to be edited.
You can also request that your realtor ask for feedback from previous showings on why your home wasn’t a fit. Ask your realtor to pass on this information to you every time your house is shown from now on and make adjustments as necessary.
Other options could be include waiting to sell (if you can afford to!). If you’re pressed for time, make changes immediately. Have a back up plan just in case your house still doesn’t sell after the changes are implemented. Can you rent your house out in the short term? Or perhaps it’s time to consider a short sell? Go over all your options with your realtor.
During the evaluation process of why your house isn’t selling, you may find out that you need to change realtors. But first, think back and determine if your realtor has made suggestions that you’ve said no to? Maybe it’s time to start taking their advice.
If, however, your realtor hasn’t communicated any issues, it may be time to ask some questions. See what your realtor has to say about the marketing for your home and why they think it hasn’t sold.
If you do need to re-list your house, do you know the best day to list your home? Watch this video to find out which day is the best to list your house and why!
Get Your Home Sold!
Overall, the biggest thing you can do to get your home sold is to get it in front of the right people. Be sure your listing makes a great first impression and impacts viewers with its detailed description and professional photographs. Make sure your house is priced to sell so that potential buyers will want to make offers on your home first!
We hope this post gave you a lot of ideas to help get your house sold! We have another post that covers all the things you can do to prep your house for the market. Learn how to sell your home here.
If you’re in the Birmingham area and you want to know why your house isn’t selling, The Howell Group would love to help! We will take a look at the marketing, photos, listing description for your home and conduct a comparative market analysis to ensure your home is priced correctly to sell in this market. Please contact Dianna Howell with The Howell Group at (205) 568-5435 or email her at: dianna.howell@kw.com
