Is the listing on your home about to expire?

Is the listing on your home about to expire? It’s not uncommon during this time of year to see real estate listings go from active, to withdrawn and expired. The winter months are notoriously difficult for selling a home; the distraction of the holidays is a major hurdle for both buyers and sellers. Ultimately fewer viewings result in fewer sales leaving you at risk for an expired listing. If you are reaching the end of your listing period it’s important to also remember that the end of the year and the beginning of a new year is a natural and logical time to reassess your position as a seller.

If your house has been on the market for some time and the end goal is still to sell the property, it’s important to take a close look at what can be learned from an unsuccessful sale.

As a seller, you have three viable options:

1. You can extend the listing with your current agent.
2. You can find a new agent.
3. Or you can consider taking the house off the market completely.

Although it’s the last choice on the list above, lets discuss taking your house off of the market first. Its natural to feel that it may be better to take your house off the market and wait for better selling conditions, and while it may seem logical you may also find yourself in the same situation or worse. Waiting for a more “suitable” time to sell, perhaps waiting for Spring or hoping for a market increase is unfortunately no guarantee you’ll be in a better position. Yes, there are more buyers in the Spring, but there are also more sellers too so any benefit you would get from re-listing in the Spring is usually offset by the increase in competition.

If you are thinking about taking your house off the market in an attempt to offset the amount of time you’ve already been on the market, rest assured there has been a bit of a paradigm shift here. During the real estate bubble it was only taking four to six weeks for a house to sell, unfortunately that is no longer the case and houses are taking anywhere between four and six months to sell. So given the current market there is no longer always a negative stigma attached to a house that has been on the market for a lengthy period of time. Ultimately, if you’re thinking of taking your house off of the market remember this: the selling conditions aren’t likely to vastly deteriorate in the space of a few months, but neither are they likely to substantially improve so selling your house now is probably a good a time as any, and it’s certainly less hassle.

So with that in mind, the remaining options are to carry on with your current agent or find a new agent.

In terms of sticking with your current agent, most agents will almost always want to renew the contract since they don’t get paid unless the property is sold. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the agent has put in a considerable amount of time and money into promoting the property so they will most likely want to renew to avoid the exponential loss. But that said, you should consider the reasons why the house hasn’t sold before moving to another agent. There are several reasons why the house may not be appealing to buyers and in many cases the responsibility falls either on the agent or the seller, or both in equal measure. Read the rest of this entry »