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We have had our house on the market since May. No houses have sold in our area during this time. We have lookers....but no offers. Our contract with our agent ends in October and my husband and I are trying to decide what the next move should be. We don't "have" to move. We just want to move out of this area and to downsize. Is it better to just leave it on the market for sale and hope it sells....or to take it off the market during the holiday season and put it back on the market next year? We're thinking that maybe the economy will get better and the housing market will improve. Of course, that's a big maybe! We have already decreased our asking price once by $30,000.
It's discouraging. However, I would be feeling worse if everyone else's house was selling and mine was not. None of the houses are selling.
I guess you know that you are lucky that you don't HAVE to sell. I am sure that some others in your neighborhood are not as lucky and may be facing short sales or foreclosures.
You may get lucky and get a buyer during the holiday season when the home is cheerfully decorated.
The number of days on the market may hurt you as the home may be considered a stale listing if it's on the market over 6 months.
We downsized in 2008 by selling our large house. It took about 12 months to sell since it was one of the pricier homes in the area. I would leave it on the market until Thanksgiving then take it off till Jan 2nd which is what we did. The holidays are pretty slow.
We have a field in our MLS named CDOM (Cumulative Days on Market) and I always try to show the homes to buyers with a lower CDOM knowing that is usually where you find the "Wow" house. Here you have to leave a home off the market 30 days to reset that field. Talk to your agent and see if they have something similar.
Since you don't have to sell you might leave it off till spring when activity normally picks back up. Use that time to make the house shine & look at it's best.
We haven't spoken to our realtor about this yet. Actually, we're thinking of going with a different realtor.
I told my husband that if we take it off the market for a couple of months, we'll use that time to declutter the house more and restage it. I've already done this....but I think that after 6 months, the house could use a refreshening! Or maybe I'm just discouraged and want to try something new. Friends told us something about burying a statue of St. Joseph that we need to look into.
If you are serious about selling the thing that always works is continuing to lower the price. But don't lower the price so slowly that you follow the market down, like waiting a year to lower it 10% more, when the prices are falling 10% a year, if that's the case. I sold a house in 30 days by quickly dropping the price. I had a lot of lookers, but no offer, then an offer the day it was lowered. If your house doesn't sell in 90 days, the price is too high.
We haven't spoken to our realtor about this yet. Actually, we're thinking of going with a different realtor.
I told my husband that if we take it off the market for a couple of months, we'll use that time to declutter the house more and restage it. I've already done this....but I think that after 6 months, the house could use a refreshening! Or maybe I'm just discouraged and want to try something new. Friends told us something about burying a statue of St. Joseph that we need to look into.
If you do bury St. Joseph make sure you leave some kind of marker at his location - because after your home sells you are supposed to dig him back up and give him a place of honor in your new home...can't do that if you can't find him. LOL
The advice from Rakin is SOLID -- in most areas the CDOM is a huge reason that folks start to ASSUME "must be something wrong with that one"...
The fact is that in any reasonable local market a tremendous percentage of the working agents will know that "hey this was listed before" but the "dead time" is a good time to pull your listing.
If you do decide to switch agents make sure that you do it for the right reasons -- an agent that is better able to help you set a realistic price, an agent that is is fully acquainted with appropriate technology to reach the most likely buyer of your home, an agent that is reachable and treats every offer as a starting point would all be especially in your situation.
We haven't spoken to our realtor about this yet. Actually, we're thinking of going with a different realtor.
I told my husband that if we take it off the market for a couple of months, we'll use that time to declutter the house more and restage it. I've already done this....but I think that after 6 months, the house could use a refreshening! Or maybe I'm just discouraged and want to try something new. Friends told us something about burying a statue of St. Joseph that we need to look into.
Oh purleeeeease. Forget St Joseph.
You want to sell your house?
GO AND LOOK (OBJECTIVELY) AT WHAT ELSE IS ON THE MARKET, IN YOUR AREA, IN YOUR CURRENT PRICE RANGE.
PRETEND YOU ARE A BUYER. PRETEND YOU'RE 25, 35, 45 OR 55
What feature(s) of your house would appeal to any of those demographics? Whatever features they may be, market them.
Look at your competition.
Find the LISTING agents, and book a "viewing" in your immediate area and go and see what location, square footage, updates you're competing against.
Find out (FROM YOUR AGENT - THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE PAYING THEM FOR) what recently sold properties actually sold for.
Once you have absorbed this information, and if you actually NEED to sell, then proceed to list AT THE RIGHT PRICE POINT.
If you "think" your property is worth $350K but comparable solds are "$300K" - and your competition is listing at $320K - then you should be listing at $299,950" - to draw in the buyers who have a $300K "limit" on their search criteria. Most buyers look online first now so that price bracket may attract (or deter) many buyers.
I know that this isn't necessarily ideal if you have a $320K mortgage on a $300K (as currently valued) house but how much worse may it be in a year???? Sell it now at $300K and take a $20K loss or "maybe" sell it in 2 years and take a $70K loss?
But don't lower the price so slowly that you follow the market down, like waiting a year to lower it 10% more, when the prices are falling 10% a year, if that's the case.
LOL there was a house near me that was first listed in 2007 at $675K. Two years later in 2009 they pulled it off the market after listing it at $320K, 290K, and finally $350.
So funny and bizarre how these guys were thinking. The $675K was ok for the peak in 2006, but around $150K over market at the time of listing. If these guys had listed at $499K in 2007, they would have made out plenty ok(last sale was in 1990 at the previous market run up peak at around $225K which was way over priced).
Try this for a couple of months. Put a sign out front.. For Sale By Owner.
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Sell it now at $300K and take a $20K loss or "maybe" sell it in 2 years and take a $70K loss? 
