Real estate is a language unto itself, full of terms and expressions that have special meanings. A stale listing is usually thought of as a listing that’s been on the market for a while and hasn’t sold. How long does it take for a listing to be considered stale?Depends on the circumstances. It might take only 2 weeks in a very hot market for a type of home that usually sells very quickly. Or it could take 6 months to a year for a very expensive home that would normally take months to sell. In my opinion, a listing is stale when buyers start asking “Why hasn’t this home sold yet? It must either be overpriced or there’s something wrong with it.” As a seller, you really don’t want buyers asking these questions because they result in buyers either thinking your home is overpriced and making you a very low offer or worrying about buying a lemon of a house and not making you an offer at all.

So what should you do to prevent your listing from going stale if your home doesn’t sell within the expected time frame? Truthfully, there’s no perfect solution to this problem because some buyers are going to think your listing is stale no matter what you do. You just can’t control what buyers think.

But there ARE a few things you can do to minimize the chances of it going stale and to counter the arguments of buyers who think there’s something wrong with it or it’s overpriced.

• Take the steps necessary to give your home the best possible chance of selling during the expected time frame. The most important thing you can do is to set a realistic list price right off the bat, making sure you have comparable sales to support your price so you can furnish this information to potential buyers.
• While your home is listed, monitor the market on a continuous basis to make sure that your list price is always in line with the comparable sales. If the comparable sales prices are falling, you may need to adjust your list price.
• Cancel your listing and relist your home every 30 days or so. Agents’ radars are tuned in to look for new listings so they’ll be more likely to hone in on your home and show it to their buyers if your listing is new. It will also decrease the number of days on market as shown on your listing so your home won’t, at first blush, appear to have been on the market for that long.
• If a buyer gives you the old “Your home is obviously overpriced so we’re prepared to offer you only this ridiculously low price”, you counter with “I can see why you might think that, but the fact is that if you look at the comparable sales you’ll see that they all support my price. Not every home sells right away. My home hasn’t sold not because it’s overpriced, but because the right buyer hasn’t come along yet and I’m prepared to wait for that buyer.”

It’s not easy to overcome the perception that there may be something wrong with your home or that it’s overpriced. Depending on market conditions, the longer your home is on the market, the more vulnerable you may become to lowball offers. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to succumb to one.

For a real life example with tips on how to deal with this situation, keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post called The Anatomy of a Listing. After that, you won’t want to miss the third part of this series, When to Reduce Your List Price, because there will be times when reducing your list price will be your best move.

As always, if you know of anyone who’s looking for an honest realtor who really knows his  stuff and won’t pressure them, Please Don’t Keep Me a Secret. I really appreciate your referrals. Thanks for reading and don’t be shy if you have any questions or comments!