What If My Home Didn't Sell?

With summer almost over, many sellers are left wondering if they will still be able to find a buyer before their listing expires. A home that's left sitting on the market for too long does not only gather dust, but a bad reputation as well. People develop a negative impression on houses that have expired because they can't help thinking there must be something wrong with it.

If you're one of these sellers who are anxious and don't know what to do, then here are some tips for you.

1. Pull out your listing. Don't wait for it to expire, pull out while you still can and reassess the situation. Take some time to re-evaluate and, eventually, relist. Of course, it’s not as easy as pulling the home one day and relisting the next. Find out from your local real estate agent what the conditions are for your listing to be considered new. For example, in some places, the house needs to be off the market for more than 90 days before being considered as a new listing.

2. Know where you went wrong. Analyze why your home didn’t sell and then address that issue. There are many possible reasons why a home wouldn't sell and you have to go over the whole process to make sure you pinpoint what went wrong. Sometimes it's the price, or insufficient marketing, or badly taken photos. Anything can go wrong. Before re-listing, find out where the fault lies and fix it.

3. Take good pictures. Are your photos blurry or out of focus? If you can't take good pictures, hire a professional photographer to do it. You need clear, crisp, well-lighted and perfectly staged photos to attract buyers online. It’s especially important to send seasonally appropriate photos. If it’s spring, you don’t want to start off with a photo that shows fall leaves or piles of snow, because that’s an instant tip off that the home has been sitting on the market.

4. Price changes could work. A small price change may serve to trigger an email alert to buyers who have set up a home search based on their price range.

So if your home didn't sell this season, don't fret! There are plenty of opportunities to find that perfect buyer if you only know how to market your home.