Few things in real estate are more frustrating than a stale listing. You put in hours upon hours of work advising the seller, organizing photo shoots, and setting up marketing. But the house goes on the market, and then…crickets.
What can you do when a listing isn’t getting the attention it deserves? Read on for seven ways to revive a stale listing.
How to Revive a Stale Listing
Stuck with a listing that isn’t selling? Here are seven ways to give it new life – and get it sold.
1. Rewrite the Listing Description
Even the best house can linger on the market if the MLS description doesn’t do it justice. If you’re facing a stale listing, start with the easiest and quickest fix: a rewrite of the listing description. Make it exciting, informative, and unique.
Don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered! Click here to read our step-by-step guide to writing descriptions that sell.
2. Examine Your Marketing Strategy
If potential buyers don’t see the listing, they can’t buy the house. That might seem obvious, but it’s amazing how many agents fail to create a dynamic marketing strategy.
As a real estate agent, your job is to sell your client’s home as quickly as possible, for the highest price. The best way to do that is to get the listing in front of as many people as you can.
Technology makes it easy to share that listing far and wide. In addition to the standard locations – your website, other listing websites, and local advertising – you can generate more interest by thinking outside the box:
- Video marketing
- Sponsoring local community events and advertising the property
- Dynamic email marketing
- Hosting a unique open house
- Social media marketing
A few tweaks to your marketing strategy could be all you need to revive that stale listing.
3. Update the Photos
We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: high-quality, professional listing photos make a world of difference when selling a home.
Great photos can accent a home’s best features, make it feel open and light, and grab the potential buyer’s attention. Subpar photos, on the other hand, can make a home appear small, drab, and outdated.
If your listing isn’t getting much traction, consider hiring a professional real estate photographer to work their magic.
4. Add Some Curb Appeal
Sometimes, photos and marketing aren’t enough. The real problem is a home that appears unsellable at first glance.
If the property suffers from a lack of curb appeal, that could prevent potential buyers from even stepping inside.
Work with the seller and suggest some easy, low-cost fixes like these to clean up the exterior. A home is more likely to sell when it looks inviting on the outside.
5. Minor Updates and Major Fixes
Curb appeal is only one part of the equation. Sometimes, a home doesn’t sell because of obvious cosmetic, structural, or mechanical flaws. Many buyers simply don’t want to spend the time and money updating a house after buying it.
Sometimes these fixes might be costly for the sellers, like updating flooring or fixing HVAC issues. But in other cases, a simple coat of paint, new door hardware, and a few new light fixtures are all it takes to spruce up a stale listing.
6. Consider Staging
If you are scheduling showings but aren’t seeing any interest from buyers, you might reexamine the home’s overall appearance. Staging, though a simple solution, can often significantly impact buyers’ opinions of the house.
Clutter, dark window dressings, outdated furniture, and walls full of family photos can really turn buyers off. Staging allows buyers to better visualize the house’s potential and can even make smaller spaces feel open and airy.
According to the National Association of Realtors, staged homes sell 30% faster on average than those not staged. And according to the same survey, when staged homes sell, they sell for more than their non-staged competition.
7. Run New Comps
Sometimes, despite all your best efforts, a house simply sits on the market and doesn’t budge. If the sellers are desperate to sell, take another look at the comps in the area. With the market changing, it’s possible the home is overpriced for the neighborhood or its condition.
Run new comps. You might find you aren’t priced higher than anything else in the neighborhood, which will rule out a price drop. In some cases, though, a price reduction is the only way to get a house from “for sale” to “sold.”
What do you do when your listings aren’t getting any love? Share your thoughts in th
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