What to Do When Your Listing Isn’t Selling… Even in Today’s Hot Market – #TomFerryShow

December 15, 2020

Here are some important tips on what to do when your listing isn’t selling.

“But everything we hear, the market is crazy… Everything is selling quickly for top dollar. Why haven’t you been able to sell our house?”

This is not a fun conversation to find yourself in.

But it’s an occasional reality of today’s market.

For whatever reason – location, price, quality – certain homes seem to be overlooked in what’s otherwise a “crazy hot” market.

And when it’s your listing, it’s up to you to offer some solutions.

So let’s dig into two different directions you can go…

First Things First: Do Your Homework

Before we get to those two options, you need to do a little research and data collection.

I recommend you go back through everything you’ve done for the property, from your initial listing launch, to videos you’ve posted, to social posts you’ve used to promote it, to feedback from showing agents… anything pertaining to that home, collect and analyze the data.

Then you can present that to the seller and show the work you’ve done, and also “show” them what the market is essentially telling you… That in its current state, the home at this price is not generating interest.

It goes back to the great Steve Harney line, “If the home’s not selling, the price isn’t compelling.”

Now onto the two options…

Stagnant Listing Option 1: Raise the Price (with a Caveat)

So, option one is to propose raising the price on the property…

…but to do so, you’re going to have to make it worth it.

You need to make it scream “wow” to every potential buyer who sees it online or walks through the front door.

Which means cleaning it out, staging it properly, doing some upgrades, creating a killer new listing video, and eventually 30-45 days later, re-launching the listing.

That is one option to present to the sellers. I don’t suspect many will take that option, but it illustrates to them what needs to happen if they want to stick with their inflated price.

Now on to a more realistic option…

Stagnant Listing Option 2: Lower the Price to Create a Bidding War

Option two allows you to demonstrate your strategic resourcefulness, especially if the sellers demanded the higher price to begin with.

The plan here is to lower the price BELOW the most recent comps in the neighborhood, and then market it uber-aggressively.

Tell the homeowners you will blitz every agent in town, and you’ll create a new listing video positioning it like this (props to Tim Smith for this idea)…

“What’s the most important lesson in real estate? To buy the least expensive home in the nicest neighborhood. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the lowest priced home in [neighborhood].”

The more buzz you can generate around this low-priced property, the more offers you’re going to create, and a bidding war will ensue.

So… are you going to dress it up, create a stunning new listing video and raise the price?

Or lower the price and create a bidding war scenario?

Let me know in the comments below!