Help! I’m Stuck with a House I Can’t Sell — Any Advice?

Being stuck with a house you can’t sell becomes more emotionally and financially draining with every day that accumulates. You start to wonder if you’re just in a slow market (that’s possible), if your real estate agent is failing you (also possible), or what gives.

You begin tallying up the costs of property taxes and maintenance you’ll never be out from under, all the while knowing that a stale listing typically sells for less.

“I had clients whose home was on the market [for three months] with a listing price of $415,000, and over time they lowered it to $389,000 with little traffic and no offers,” says Rosie Rourke, an award-winning real estate agent in Washington state. “When they finally came to me, we did a little work, listed their home for $389,000, and in 9 days we got it sold.”

Every situation and home is different, but here is what top-selling real estate agents, including Rourke, advise sellers in this frustrating position.

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First, check your area’s typical days on market

A reference point for you: According to the National Assocation of Realtors (NAR), recently sold homes were on the market for a median of two weeks in 2023. As of 2024, 43% of homes are sold within 1-2 weeks, with 15% sold in 3-4 weeks and 12% sold in less than one week. So, if you’re within that 14-21 day window or even a bit past it, it could be that all you need is a little more patience for your house to sell.

However, you also can’t rule out the likelihood that there’s an issue with your price, your home’s condition, or your marketing egregious enough to keep buyers at bay. The likelihood that something is off certainly rises as time goes on without any interest.

Even if that is the case, you have options. No matter how many weeks out you are, you can turn this around with the right strategy:

1. Assess your listing agent’s performance

Rourke’s clients actually took the first step on their own — they assessed their first listing agent’s performance and decided to move on to a new agent.

“These particular clients were with a different agent for three months. They had heard about me through my marketing and decided to call and said, ‘What do we do?’” recalls Rourke.

“I told them, if possible, we wait 90 days before relisting the house because at that point it becomes a fresh new listing. If I list a house the day after another agent releases it, the listing retains all of those days it sat on the market, which forces us to go to an even lower price.”

Three months.

Three months sitting unsold on the market, plus another three months off market waiting for the listing to become new again. That’s a total of six months stuck waiting to sell your house.

Instead of sitting around for half a year, it’s wiser to evaluate your agent’s performance if you’re not getting any showings or offers within those first two to three weeks that it takes most homes to sell.

Again, it could be that your market is simply more sluggish than other areas, so don’t go jumping the gun. Simply take the initiative to evaluate your agent’s performance around the 21- to 30-day marker by answering these questions:

• What is the average days on market for home sales in my area?
• What is the average days on market for my agent’s most recent home sales?
• How does my agent’s marketing materials compare to other houses for sale in my area?
• How is my communication/relationship with my current agent?
• Does my agent have documented experience selling in my price point and neighborhood?

If the answers to these questions are unsatisfactory, you may need to fire your real estate agent and find a new one. This may require involving a lawyer if you’ve signed an exclusive right to sell listing agreement that hasn’t yet expired.

But before you do, take a step back and evaluate whether or not the problem is with your agent, or if you’re partially at fault for your faltering home sale.

from HomeLight Blog https://www.homelight.com/blog/stuck-with-a-house-i-cant-sell/