Stale listings can drain busy agents’ time and resources, requiring ongoing attention to sustain buyer demand. Here are the strategies to create fresh momentum and shift properties that have lingered.
With the market slowing and listings taking longer to sell, agents need to rethink their campaign when a property goes stale.
LJ Hooker Lifestyle Group director and licensee Hunter Maxwell said that despite having experience with stale listings, there was no guaranteed method to reignite interest.
He said that when a property went stale, agents typically either pulled the listing down and refreshed it, or made adjustments on the fly.
When a listing wouldn’t budge, Maxwell said agents needed to consider the three P’s: property, promotion, and price.
“These are the three things that really affect the sale,” Maxwell told REB.
“If it just isn’t selling, you can adjust one of the Ps to get it where you need it to go. Everything you can do to reinvigorate a listing, it all comes from the three P’s.”
He said that agents who kept a close eye on the feedback and insights around the property could identify when a listing was beginning to lose momentum.
“If you are getting nowhere after about four or six weeks, then you have got to do something.”
Here are Maxwell’s tips for re-engaging the market on a listing.
Refreshing the property
Maxwell said the first step agents should take was to look at the property itself and consider whether minor alterations could boost buyer interest.
“When it comes to changing the property, it comes down to ‘what can we do to make this space nicer to be in’.”
He said it didn’t require a full-scale renovation, and that even something as little as changing the light bulbs or tidying up the garden could give a listing a new lease on life.
“We had a listing that was really dark; we changed the light bulbs and made it brighter, and it sold the next weekend,” he said.
“Whether that did it or not, it’s just one of the small things we can do to make it more attractive to buyers.”
Similarly, McGrath Estate Agents founder John McGrath said that boosting a home’s visual appeal was essential to resonating with buyers.
“It’s about ensuring your home appeals to a range of buyers, who will generate competition for your property and help you achieve the best possible sale price,” McGrath said.
A shift in promotion
After looking at the property itself, Maxwell said agents should consider their own listing strategy and how to strengthen its presence in the market.
A strategy Maxwell said had worked for him was to host open homes at different time slots for the same listing.
“That way, if someone has kids’ sport on or if they’re busy, at least they have the other option.”
“People want to look at 10 different houses, and if eight of them are on at the same time, they’ll have to choose. At least this way, they have two opportunities to look at ours.”
Additionally, Maxwell said that agents should utilise all available tools to drive interest in the property, including social media and property publications.
Price changes – the last resort
Maxwell said that agents should exhaust all options before approaching the vendor about a price reduction.
“What I say to my team is that you really have to earn your price reduction.”
“You have to prove to the vendor that you’ve done everything that you can, and once you have done all of that, then you might need to drop the price to get it sold.”
He said it was important to keep the vendors in the loop at every stage of the listing campaign and to ensure they understood the level of interest the property was seeing.
If, after all the changes had been made, the property was still not selling, Maxwell said it became a waiting game for vendors if they were holding firm on the new price.
“If they still don’t want to reduce the price and you have done everything, they won’t leave you because they know it isn’t you; it’s the market,” he said.
“That’s where we are saying, ‘look, we’re probably just going to have to wait for the market to change and the right buyer to come along. Your buyer just probably isn’t looking yet, but they’ll come.’”
Maxwell said that taking the patient approach could take 12–18 months, and that agents needed to be completely transparent with their vendors.
“The wait for the market, kind of, vendors want to wait for a certain price, and we will eventually get it done.”
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