It's time to sell your home.

You've de-cluttered your home, you've painted, you scrambled until the wee hours in the morning to do some final touch-ups  to get your house looking it's best for the photographer.  The pictures come back and you say "I can't believe that's my house!!"

We're ready to push the listing live.  

You're a bit anxious until you get a call from my office with your first showing request.  You hang up, and 5 minutes later another call comes.... and another, and another, for 6 long days.  

You have had 30 showings leading up to your offer day and you're expecting at least one (or hopefully more) so you can get back to a normal life.  In nearly every moment in history, you would be correct in expecting that.  

One problem..... nobody is calling on offer day.   And nobody submits an offer.  

Uh, oh.  Now what should you do?

Relax.  Be patient.  Sometimes these things happen. 

Gone are the days where multiple offers on a listing is a slam dunk, no-brainer (note:  this is being written during the covid-19 pandemic).  The world is a different place now.  Today's buyer is apprehensive about waiving conditions or getting into bidding wars so give it some time.

If a few weeks have passed and still no bites then something is definitely up.   You've had a large enough sample size to know that you're somehow missing the mark with buyers in your marketplace.  In this scenario, you may want to do something different.  

You can try waiting it out or try either of these 2 strategies:

1. Terminating the listing and pivot to a new strategy.  If you need the proceeds from selling your home to fund your next purchase then this is your best option.
2. Wait for more favourable market conditions.  Fall and spring markets are generally the most robust so if you can  wait a bit, you might be happy you did.  Sometimes you just run in to bad timing.

In any case, not making adjustments and improvements while you're off the market is a mistake you can't afford to make.  Whether you re-list quickly or decide to wait a bit, take what you've learned from the showings and be better going forward.  

Analyze the Feedback

The biggest thing to consider is the feedback from the agents who showed the property.   The buyer agents are showing properties to their clients everyday in the price range your home is listed at so they have a great sense of where the market is right now.  

If the majority of the agents feel the home is overpriced, then guess what, bud?  They're probably right.  Take the feedback seriously.  

Remedy The Other 'Stuff'

If the lack of offers is for other reasons like traffic, curb appeal, floor plan or the myriad of objections people may have then try to remedy any perceived flaws.  For curb appeal try some landscaping, new sod, re-paint your front door and garage door (better yet, get new ones).  

For layout, try getting a home stager to take a look at ways to make the space more appealing.  

Most of this stuff should have been done in the first place, but if you missed it the first time, don't make the same mistake twice.

Give The MLS Listing A New Look

This is the easiest to do; cancel your existing listing and re-list with a slightly different look and price.  This serves to get back into the inboxes of buyers and with a new price, you'll reach new buyers looking in a different price range.  

Best practice is to change the first picture on the listing as well as the listing description.  If you had the front of the house as the first image, try using the kitchen first for this one.  Most only look at the first picture on MLS so if you change that picture and the description, it will appear to be a fresh, new listing.  Doing this little trick alone will generate plenty of new interest.

A lot of realtors would rather sell you on a price change rather than to take the time necessary to properly sell your home.  Selling the client on a price change to reduce the time and money spent by the agent doesn't serve the public well in my opinion.  

I'm not suggesting that realtor's are being crooked by only focusing on price, it's more likely that they're just not that bright.