How to Reset Your Home’s Days On Market

Days on market refers to the number of days a home is active on the market before it enters a pending status. A home in pending status means that there has been an official contract that is accepted by the seller. 

One of the conditions buyers look at when choosing their next home is how many days on market (DOM) the home has been active. This is an indicator to buyers that something could be wrong if that number starts to get too high. Then they compare this to their neighborhood’s average days on market. This gives a sense of how quickly other comparable homes sold.

There are a lot of reasons that a home can have a lower DOM or one that is high and if it’s high, it might be useful to execute some tricks regarding how to reset your home’s days on market.

How to Reset Your Home’s Days On Market

According to research by Zillow, the national average days on market is between 65 – 93 days. Once a listing gets above 90 days, then it’s considered stale. Of course, there are exceptions to this number. For example, the neighborhood you are selling your home in, is it rural vs. suburban? Or maybe it’s a luxury property that requires a niche buyer. Simply discuss this with the listing agent to ensure that this is normal or not normal for the local marketing.

Reasons that days on market can be high

If it feels like a home has been sitting on the market for too long, it’s important to consult with a real estate agent to determine whether it has or hasn’t.

If a home is taking longer to sell, then simply removing it from the market, resetting the days on market back to zero, and assessing a couple of common issues might do the trick before relisting the house for sale.

Below are reasons that a that home’s DOM can be high:

Home Price

Pricing a home correctly is one of the most important elements to ensuring the home sells. Sometimes, an agent might price the home wrong. This leads to the listing incurring a price reduction status on all of the real estate websites. This is unfortunate because it can make buyers wary that there is something wrong with the home.

Additionally, sometimes sellers think that their home is worth more than it actually is for a number of reasons, especially if the owner made a number of improvements to the home that actually don’t help the value.

By taking the home off the market, a seller can work with their agent to determine a new pricing strategy. Sometimes, it might make sense to use this time to fire the existing real estate agent and hire a new one if they didn’t seem competent. It’s always important to check the listing agreement if this is the case.

Condition of home

Many buyers prefer new construction and turn key homes. With that said, it’s possible that the home in question is simply not in a condition that garners attention from buyers.

Sometimes a home might require a renovation once it’s discovered that it’s not selling. Taking the home off the market, completing the renovations, and then relisting is a good route to take as there shouldn’t be too much construction going on when showing the home.

Marketing

Aside from pricing the home correctly, marketing a home is almost equally as important. It’s possible the agent didn’t take good pictures or write a good description. Maybe their social media strategy is outdated and not up to par with modern agents. Many factors come into play when marketing a home properly. Sometimes taking the home off the market and relisting it with a fresh “brand image” can benefit the seller.

How to Reset Days on Market: Relist the Home

Once the days on market creeps up above the local markets average, then it immediately falls into the lower 50th percentile. This can affect how a buyer perceives the home.

The easiest way to reset the days on market is to remove it from the multiple listing services for 30 days. Give it some time to cool off, and then relist it to receive a new MLS number in the MLS system. This will be a sure fire way to reset the days on market back to zero.

Obviously, it’s better to get the listing right the first time by hiring an experienced agent and taking their advice. However, that’s not the way it always works and resetting the days on the market is a simple and effective trick to get more attention on the home that is for sale.