Never Say Never: What to Do When It’s Hard to Sell Your House

Everyone lists their house with the intention of selling it in no time. Most sellers are on a race against the clock, whether it’s to get to a new job, or to move into a new property on which they’ve already closed. Unfortunately, very few houses sell as quick as we need them to. Home sales are at an all-time high for the first time in the last 10 years, according to The Mortgage Reports. That’s great news. But it still doesn’t mean that houses are selling at exceptional speed. A buyer’s market means people have more choices, can spend more time looking at different options, or even negotiating more over the details of the contract. While many organizations have approximation formulas for their regions as to how long the average house stays on the market, the truth there is no one exact equation to determine how long it will take to sell your house. Luck can play a role, but numbers given on different real estate websites vary from 36 days to as high as 69 days-and that’s just an average.

What can you do to sell your house?

So, what can you do when your house lingers on the market? We’ve discussed how to best stage your home for sale, and what can make a house more attractive. But when you’re stuck, what are some tried and true techniques to hopefully get people inside and papers signed? We’ve come up with three methods to help you (hopefully) lessen the time your house spends on the market so you can get to where you need to be.

1. Play the market. By bringing in a wider customer base, whether through an open house that might help you sell your home, or working with an agent to bring in multiple competitive bids, the bigger the audience, the higher your chance of selling your house sooner. If you limit yourself to private viewings or scheduled appointments, you might be costing yourself a bigger audience.

    

2. Lower your expectations. Settling for less money is never ideal, but if you’re in the midst of a buyer’s market, lowering your price point is not the worst idea to help get your house off the market faster. Also, if you don’t have time to make all the necessary renovations, consider selling your house as-is and adjusting the expectations that were previously set.

    

3. Go digital. Selling your house no longer strictly means an ad in the newspaper or putting a “For Sale” sign in your front yard. Sellers and agents have access to so many technological resources, from websites to apps, such as Redfin or Zillow, both of which provide valuable information or allow you or your agent to post your house for sale online and expand your market. Take advantage of new technology such as SetSchedule’s platform for connecting top realtors with the best resources with possible to help you sell your house quicker.

Control the Clock-Don't Watch the Time Pass

Selling your house is a waiting game with no defined time period. However, with the newer resources, and inventive ideas, there’s no reason you can’t cut the waiting time down to just a few weeks, or if you’re lucky, a few days. With all of these tools at your disposal, there is nothing that should hold you back from getting your house sold.