Your home listing expired, now what?
I see it all too often; a home for sale listing expires; meaning a home was listed on the MLS for sale and never sold.
When you list a home for sale with a Real Estate Agent, typical listing time periods can be anywhere from a year, 6 months or 3 months. If a Real Estate Agent doesn’t sell the home during the listing time period that the Seller had agreed to, then the listing will expire and the home is no longer for sale with that Agent. Who wants to waste months and up to a year wasting time while a home languishes on the market unsold? That would be more than disheartening to any homeowner.
Here I’ll discuss the awful symptoms of an expired listing along with their cure.
So what are the symptoms? What’s ailing you when your home isn’t selling or worse yet expires?!
Symptoms of Expired Listing
1. Awake at night not able to sleep
2. Losing or gaining weight
3. Headaches
4. Unable to focus at work
5. Adding one more glass of wine, mug of beer or cocktail to your nightly routine
6. Melancholy mood
7. Irritable
8. Overall feeling of malaise
Sounds all too familiar if you haven’t sold your home when you’ve been trying for so long, right? You never imagined it to be so difficult. You thought you’d plop a sign in the front yard and home Buyers would flock to your home. When this didn’t happen all of the symptoms described above started to occur. You want nothing to do with this, as you just want your home sold! There is a way to get out of this angst with the cures discussed below:
What are the CURES to these 8 expired listing symptoms?
Start off right by hiring a knowledgeable Real Estate Agent
Nothing is worse than learning the hard way and having to experience an expired listing when you’ve chosen the wrong Real Estate Agent to sell your home. You’ll want to avoid it at costs, which you can, if you hire the right Real Estate Agent the first time around.
Hire a proven Agent who is skilled at selling homes and has a track record of selling homes, along with customers who speak volumes on just how well they did at selling their homes.
Ask questions of them, such as:
- How long have they been selling homes?
- Do they actually sell the homes that they list for sale?
- How many of their listings have expired?
- What is their sales price to list price ratio? And this ratio is from the very first list price, not the ratio determined after several price reductions. Don’t suffer from the Agent who lists your home at whatever you initially wanted and then you watch as the price reductions follow, week after week, month after month with your home not selling. This is the strategy when a Real Estate Agent “buys” your listing by promising you the moon and the stars at “your” price that unfortunately is the worst method to try and sell a home as in the end it results in netting less money when you’ve only chased the market.
- How quickly do they sell homes?
- How many homes have they sold?
- How well do they know their local Real Estate market and how will your listing compete online?
Finding the right Real Estate Agent, will require that you know what to look for in a Real Estate Agent so your home gets sold and the listing doesn’t wither away and expire. They must be in the business of selling homes and know the importance of top notch online internet exposure.
It’s a tough decision, yet so important to choose well, so you know you’ll be receiving the right advice.
Price your home to sell from day one
More times than not, this will be the #1 reason why your home listing expired. Pricing a home is crucial for home selling success. Your home needs to be priced right from the beginning. It’s not simply about what you want to get from the sale of your home, as a Buyer will only pay what the local Real Estate Market will support. An overpriced home will be overlooked by a Buyer, forcing them to buy your competitions home that was priced right. How your home is priced and it’s price point can make all the difference in getting your home sold. Who wants the worry of selling your home for less than you could, due to inaccurate pricing, when you find that you’re chasing the market from an initial overpriced home or worse yet, in not selling it at all! Pricing correctly is a mix between art and science.
Prepare for selling your home
I can’t say it enough on the importance of preparing your home for sale and for being prepared on the home selling process. Preparing your home for sale starts with actually getting your home ready to shine and stand out from the competition for all Buyers to see. It’s also essential for you to know what steps you 
will go through during the home sale so you can be prepared and anticipate what lies ahead. Preparation in all that we do goes a long way in keeping our nerves at bay.
Expect the unexpected
So much of what we experience has a negative, irritating effect when we don’t anticipate it in advance. Expect the unexpected when selling a home and you’ll likely be less irritated when the unexpected happens. It’s not unusual to find, that during contract negotiations and the Buyer’s inspection, that things can come up that can get you hot under the collar. Be calm in knowing that you’ve chosen an experienced Real Estate Agent who will know how best to handle the unexpected that is more routine to them.
Refrain from excessive haggling
Haggling back and forth over minuscule things really won’t be worth the trouble and will lead to greater aggravation. Do you really have to win that badly? Save it for another time after you’ve closed on your home. Would you really want to lose out on the sale of your home over what results in being a small percentage of the overall price?
Eat right
What does eating right have to do with selling my home, you ask? A lot.
Has nutrition never been one of your strengths? Well you don’t necessarily have to become a health crazed person now that it’s time to sell your home, however forgoing the bag of chips and pop (yes, I came from the north 30+ years ago and I’m one who says “pop” and not “soda”) for dinner would be wise. Try to eat as balanced as you can for optimum mental and physical well being during this time period. Who knows, maybe you’ll get used to it after you close on your home and what can that hurt?!
Exercise
What does exercising have to do with selling a home? It’s a great stress reliever. Even if you’ve neve
r exercised before, you might want to consider it when it’s time to sell your home, even if it’s going for a simple early morning or early evening walk. Heck, you could go for a walk when your home is being shown, if you happen to be at home. Plus, exercise does wonders to alleviating those moments when you feel like strangling someone!
So get it right the second time around or avoid the expired listing all together, by remembering to select the right Real Estate Agent, price it right, prepare well, expect the unexpected, lessen haggling, eat well and exercise. Pretty simply home selling strategy to avoid many unwanted, annoying, unpleasant symptoms common with the expired listing.
Call me if you’ve gone through the drudges of an expired listing or if you want to avoid one all together. I sell homes here in Southeast Florida and can sell your home too!
Additional Home Selling Resources:
“The Best of the Best Advice for Home Sellers” by Karen Highland
“Top 10 Things you need to know before Selling a Home” by Kyle Hiscock
“3 Home Staging Tips that will help you Sell your Home quickly” by Anita Clark
“Days on the Market and Home Sales” by Debbie Drummond
“5 Easy Updates for Home Sellers” by Barb Bottitta
“Seller’s Disclosure What you Need to Know” by Teresa Cowart
“30 Minutes of Exercise Infographic” by Health Blog
“4 Ways Yoga and Meditation will make you a Better Leader” by Al Agrawal
Today’s article “How to Cure 8 Symptoms of an Expired Home Listing” written by Lynn Pineda. You’ll find Lynn selling homes in Southeast Florida in the cities of Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Parkland, Margate, Tamarac, Coconut Creek, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Sunrise, Plantation, Ft Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and surrounding cities within Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Lynn Pineda, a licensed Southeast Florida Real Estate Agent serving Coral Springs Florida, Boca Raton, Florida and surrounding Southeast Florida. Keller Williams Coral Springs Realty. Real Estate Promises Delivered. You can speak with Lynn by calling/texting her at 954-464-1100 or you can email her at: LynnP@ImagineYourHouse.com if you have questions about your home expiring or want to avoid your home expiring from the onset! Your local, trusted professional when it’s time to buy or sell your home. Real Estate promises delivered.
