My Home Won’t Sell, What Next?

Questions

Your Northern Va home has been sitting on the market for months and with growing concern you ask yourself, “my home won’t sell, what next?” The ‘listing agreement’ is about to expire and you must decide to either:

1. Take the house off the market

2. For Sale by Owner

3. List it again with the same agent, or

4. List your home with a New agent.

Taking Your Home off the Market

After putting your home on the market and seeing it not sell, you’re getting upset. You may be thinking that no one in the marketplace thought the house was worthy of the sales price.

Because you are upset, you may start to rationalize that selling wasn’t that important after all and say,

“Well, we didn’t really want to sell the house anyway. This idea of making a move right now probably doesn’t make sense.”

Don’t rationalize your dreams away. Instead, consider the reasons you decided to sell in the first place. Ask yourself and/or family this simple question:

“What made us originally put our home up for sale?”

If that reason made sense months ago when you originally listed the house, chances are it still makes sense now. Don’t give up on what you hoped to accomplish or on goals your family hoped to attain.

Just because the house didn’t sell with your last agent doesn’t mean the house will never sell or that it shouldn’t be sold.

Re-Listing with your Existing Agent

For whatever reason, your house did not sell. Perhaps you now realize houses do not sell themselves or that maybe the listing price was too high. Perhaps you’re now acknowledging that you didn’t exactly listen to your agent’s advice.

If that is the case, you may want to give your existing agent a second chance. That’s a perfectly okay thing to do.

However, if your agent didn’t perform to the standard they promised or they just did not actively search for buyers, you may want to try a different agent. Make sure your listing agent, at minimum, did these 5 things to get your home sold.

For Sale by Owner

You may now believe that listing your house with an agent is useless because your original agent didn’t accomplish the goal of selling the house. Trying to sell on your own this time may be alluring. You may think you will be in control and save on the commission.

But, is that true? Will you be able to negotiate each of the elements that make up a real estate transaction? Are you capable of putting together a comprehensive marketing plan? Do people who FSBO actually ‘net’ more money?

If you are thinking about FSBOing, take the time to first read: Study: FSBO’s Don’t Save on Commission.

List with a New Agent

Failing to sell your home in Northern Va, you may no longer trust your listing agent or what they say. However, don’t paint all real estate professionals with that same brush. Have you ever gotten a bad haircut before? Of course! Did you stop getting your hair cut or did you simply change hair stylists?

There is good and bad in every profession— Just because there are good and bad in every line of work doesn’t mean you don’t call on others for the products and services you need. You still get your hair cut, see a doctor, talk to a lawyer, send your kids to school, etc. Make sure your new listing agent can meet at least this criteria, Your Listing Agent Must Do These 5 Things

You initially believed that using an agent made sense. It probably still does.

Need a new agent experienced at selling stale listing in Alexandria, Arlington, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Dunn Loring, Falls Church, Fairfax, Great Falls, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Tysons Corner, Vienna, or anywhere in Northern VA? Email or call me to sit down and evaluate what makes my marketing strategy uniquely aggressive.