HOW TO REVIVE A STALE REAL ESTATE LISTING
WHEN THE FISH AREN’T BITING
Realtors, you know that the most important days on the market for any home listing are its first. If a listing doesn’t get the traction it needs in those first days, it can become more difficult with each passing week for the home to find a buyer.
Why does this happen? Well, like many things in sales, it’s psychological. People are more motivated to make offers when they believe the product is scarce and in demand. So, the longer a home sits on the market, the less in demand it appears and the more available it is to buyers. It says to buyers, “nobody else wants me, so take me or leave me at your leisure.”
When you find yourself in the unenviable position of trying to sell a home that has been sitting unclaimed on the market, what can you do to generate interest? Here are some ideas.
LISTEN TO FEEDBACK
Since the home has been on the market for some time, there must be feedback from the showings that could explain why buyers haven’t jumped. If there isn’t enough feedback, contact agents who have been through to get their impressions and to learn why their clients weren’t interested.
Consider the criticisms and determine whether there are things that can be done to address them.
Sometimes the issues are not ones that can be addressed, like location for example, but often small tweaks can make a difference. Think creatively and you may be able to minimize or even eliminate the problems buyers have identified.
As an example, if there’s too much noise from traffic nearby, consider putting a fountain in the yard to mask the sound. If there’s not enough storage, adding a small shed to the property is easily done. Small ones don’t require a permit in most areas. They are fully customizable and not very expensive when you consider the potential cost of a listing price reduction. If the home has an awkward room, use staging to give it a purpose (office, playroom, pantry). A good home stager will have insights into what can be done to address issues.
EVALUATE THE MARKET & THE LISTING PRICE
Typically the first thing many agents do to generate new interest in a listing is drop the price. And, this may be the best tactic if the home was priced too high to begin with. Sometimes, in an effort to win the listing, agents feel compelled to tell sellers they can get them more for their home than is likely. This puts agents in a tough position. In a cool market it can set agents up for failure and disappoint the seller.
In your pricing, always try to take into account not only where the market has been (the comps), but also where the market is going. We all know that the real estate market is not static, and a good agent needs to keep their finger on the pulse of what is coming by watching the overall economy, interest rates, and the changes that are happening in the neighborhood. Make sure your listing price is a reflection of all these considerations.
TIME FOR A REBRAND
Assuming the original list price was in parity with neighborhood comps over the last 6 months and accurately reflects the direction of the current market, it may be that the home is not being presented effectively to the ideal buyer for that particular home and the listing could benefit from a rebrand.
The first question to ask is, “who is going to love this house and what are the features of this home that make it appealing to that person?” Second, ask yourself whether you are showcasing those features effectively and reaching the home’s ideal buyer with your marketing.
STAGE THE HOME
Once you have a solid sense of who the ideal buyer is and their needs and wants, you want to make sure that the home looks like their ideal home. This is where a professional home stager can bring tremendous value.
If the home was already staged, engage the stager in a conversation about your ideal buyer analysis and see what could be changed to help the home appeal to the buyers you are trying to attract.
Consider each room and evaluate how the ideal buyer would use that room. How old is that buyer likely to be and is there a particular aesthetic that would appeal to them? A good home stager can work through these questions with you and will be willing to make changes to the staging to accommodate the new approach.
If the home has not been staged, then bring in a stager to help present the home in its best light with the ideal buyer in mind and maximize the investment in home staging.
RELIST WITH NEW PHOTOS
To make sure the listing is fresh, it might be best to remove the listing from the market for a short period to take care of the items above.
Know that taking new photos of the home, with its new staging and ideal buyer concept, will be critical to making the listing feel new.
Be sure those pictures and the listing narrative showcase the aspects of the house that will be most important to the home’s ideal buyer.
BONUS TIP
If you do all of these things before you list your properties — identify the home’s ideal ideal buyer, listen to and address feedback on the home, have the home professionally staged with the ideal buyer in mind and make sure the listing appeals to that ideal buyer with gorgeous photos and via the listing narrative — you may never encounter the stale listing problem again.
