[Unloved and unsold] What's a home seller to do
The other day, a client asked me to look up a home that she had seen earlier this year to see if it had sold and if so, what the selling price was.
And it didn't come as a big surprise to me that the home hadn't sold and the listing was withdrawn. This particular listing was withdrawn because apparently the sellers are no longer interested in selling the home because it was rented.
One thing that stood out about this listing was that the list price never budged from the original list price during the 5 months the home sat unloved and unsold on the market. It's just my opinion but the home was priced significantly higher than what I thought fair market value was and apparently the other agents and their clients who viewed the home felt the same way.
Now not everyone wants to be an accidental landlord if their home doesn't sell and after all, expired listings and withdrawn listings make up approximately 50 percent of all listings in the Charleston MLS.
Here's the breakdown year to date as of today:
14,145 new listings
7578 homes sold
1892 expired listings
5148 withdrawn listings
So what's a Charleston home seller to do if their home doesn't sell.
The first thing I might suggest is that price cures all problems. If a home either isn't getting showings or if it's getting a lot of showings but no offers, the price is too high and needs to be reduced. I realize that some home sellers might not want to hear that but that's Charleston real estate reality.
You can change agents if you'd like but if you don't do what's necessary to sell the home including making the price more attractive, making it easier to show (if you have difficult restrictions on viewings) and improving the condition and appearance of the home, agent after agent probably won't have any more success selling your home than your current Charleston Realtor.
Bottom line, it all comes down to price. And getting the best possible price is a result of pricing it correctly from the start but you do need to be flexible and react to what the market is telling you.