Here's a concept. At the outset of a listing the seller and the agent ought to agree to review the listing's progress, and to consider reducing the price and/or making other changes, within a fairly short period of time -- perhaps a month.
Once upon a time such a practice was not uncommon. In some places it probably still is. Alas, in my Orange County, California, and in other spots around the country, agents have gotten out of this habit, or, because so many are new, perhaps have never learned it. That happens when a market is hot over a sustained period. Agents don't think about having a listing that doesn't sell, or doesn't sell right away. They all expect to be in escrow in less than a month.
Of course some parts of the country are still 'hot'. In many of the recently hot areas, however, markets are returning to normalcy. Inventories are building and supply is now measured in months rather than weeks. In these markets, sellers and their agents need to be thinking competitively. And that includes adapting themselves to the conditions around them.
The key to having an early review period is exposure, and the point is this: With today's communication media it doesn't take long to expose a property to the prospective buyers who are currently in the market. You can know pretty quickly how you stand in the marketplace.
Depending on such things as publication schedules and ad deadlines, in my Orange County marketplace it doesn't take more than three to four weeks to give a property maximum effective exposure. I suspect that other market areas are similar.
Within that time period, signs are up, the information, including media, are on the MLS and the internet sites, broker preview and open houses have been held, flyers have been distributed, "just listed" postcards have been sent, and local newspaper ads have been placed.
At any given time, there is a finite number of prospective buyers actually looking for a certain type of property. (Of course there is constantly some shifting of that number, as some buyers drop out -- perhaps because they have purchased -- and others come in.) After three to four weeks, assuming all the marketing steps have been taken, the buyers currently in the market for a property like yours, Mr. Seller, will have been made aware of yours. Their agent will have notified them, they will have seen it on an internet site, seen an ad in the local paper, or perhaps even driven by.
If none of them have bit, you need to ask why.
Is the price too high? Is the curb appeal low? Is there something wrong with the ads or the pictures on the internet? What feedback have you had from other agents and/or prospects? Is there something that can be changed?
As part of this review, it is important to revisit the "comps." What, if anything, among the competing properties has sold? What has been the pace or rate of sales among competing properties? (If there has been no sales activity, that will tell you something too.) What new competition has come on the market?
In a normal market -- one where buyers have some influence -- the marketing and selling of a home is an on-going and dynamic experience. Sellers and their agents need to keep up on what is going on around them, and to talk about it.
