Helping a client relist their home after taking it off the market? There’s a correct way and an incorrect way to go about this. Nothing looks worse than a home that lingers on the market for too long. Buyers may perceive it as flawed or overpriced. In order to avoid a bad reputation, it’s sometimes necessary to pull a listing and reassess before relisting.
However, it’s not as easy as pulling the home one day and relisting a few days later. In certain areas, you have to keep your home off the market for a certain time frame before your MLS will qualify your listing as new. That time frame is only 45 days in Jacksonville, but it’s six months in Chicago. Rules vary by city.
Before relisting a home, analyze why the home didn’t sell and address that issue. It could be the price, the listing photos, the way the home shows in person, or a lack of targeted marketing. Here are some things to keep in mind before you relist.
1. Photos are more important than price.
The new listing should come with new photos and new lighting to entice buyers. Don’t forget to accentuate the seasons. If it’s spring, include flowers in the landscaping. If it’s fall, include foliage in the backyard. If the home wasn’t staged for the expired listing, stage it for the new listing. Take fresh photos after the home has been transformed. Only display attractive, high-quality photos online. If they’re blurry, pixelated, or contain low lighting, trash them.
2. Price changes work.
You don’t have to drop the price drastically to capture a buyer’s attention. If you’ve set the home to $358,000, you’re not reaching buyers with a designated search for homes priced between $325,000 and $350,000. Reduce the price to $349,000, and you’ll have a new group of interested buyers. This type of price cut must be accompanied with a photo exchange, though. The key is to get buyers to wonder if they’ve ever seen the property before.
3. Staging is essential.
The interior design of the home matters. Try swapping antique furniture with modern, IKEA-style furniture. This will almost certainly appeal to older millennials and sell the expired listing faster. Buyers look at dozens of listings every night, so photos have to be flawless to make the home stand out.
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