Dear Jill,

My wife and I have recently been thinking of taking our home off of the market. We have had our home listed for sale since the end of Spring. We are getting tired of the routine and wonder if we have missed our opportunity as it seems the buying season has halted with the return of school. In your experience, do you think it would do us good to take a break for the fall and try again next season? I have heard that your home becomes overlooked when it has been on the market for several months. What would you recommend?

Mark F.

First, I have to ask you why do you think your home is still on the market? You need to examine

1. PRICE
2. CONDITION                         

       
   

3. EXPOSURE

PRICE - Listen to the advice of your Realtor. If your home is not priced with the competition in mind, then you will simply help others sell their home while yours sits. Think about your home in a different context. Imagine we were dealing with a 50" Plasma TV. Plasma prices last year were much higher than they are this year. So suppose you were shopping for a plasma at a retailer that was still asking last years prices. But all of the other retailers down the road had their flat screens priced for todays market. Who do you think is going to sell their TV? It sounds like such a silly question but so many sellers have this mentality. YOU MUST BE PRICED FOR THE MARKET, PERIOD.

CONDITION – Another objection I often hear from sellers is that they don’t want to re-carpet rooms that have worn flooring or paint rooms that are in need of a fresh coat. I often hear the excuse, that "buyers will want to choose their own colors so we aren’t going to make those improvements. Let the buyers do it". I am telling you now, MAKE THE IMPROVEMENTS. You are fighting for buyers in this market. They will pass you over for another home that took the time to make theirs picture perfect.

EXPOSURE – This is where you want to make sure you are aligned with the right Realtor- proper exposure is critical. Make sure they have a marketing strategy that keeps your home in front of buyer’s eyes. A heavy web presence is a must for today’s real estate marketing.

As far as your question of if you should remove your home from the active market until spring, my answer to that is, it depends. If you are following my advice above, then I suggest that you leave your home on for now. Many frustrated sellers are feeling the same way as you are and are removing their homes as we speak. What that means is suddenly less competition for you! I just ran across a real estate blog the Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide  where an agent posting is appealing to anyone who does not have to sell now, to pull their homes off the market to lessen the inventory. Too much supply is a big part of the problem and will be worse again in the traditional selling months of spring and summer.

Fall in my experience can be a decent selling period. There are some peaks and valleys but often relocation buyers are house hunting during the 4th quarter looking to settle in before the new year begins. November and December have been some of my highest selling months in years past. You may not have QUANTITY in the fall/winter months but you will have QUALITY. If you still have not sold, re-examine your objections, take a break in January and February, make the corrections and try again next spring.

Good Luck!

Jill