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Why Did You Cancel the Listing?
An agent called a few days ago to ask why did you cancel the listing? She was gonna show it, and now the listing has been canceled. It was there yesterday, she said, and now it is gone. Does this mean I can’t show it, she asked.
Immediately I offered assurance she could show the home. Just put the property address into MLS and you will find the listing, I suggested. I did not really cancel the listing. Felt no need to go into the long explanation of how to reset the days on market, which is exactly what I had done.
In fact, I received another call from a seller who wanted me to reset the days on market for his listing, but he was listed with another agent. Not sure what kind of role he thought I played in writing that blog, as I imagine I had made it fairly clear that I am a Sacramento listing specialist who solely represents sellers when selling a home. Maybe he thought I possessed magical powers or knew some secret to share for a fee?
But I could tell for certain that the agent who asked why did you cancel the listing was not overly familiar with that tactic. She worked at a discount brokerage, so I automatically assume those buyer’s agents are newbies. Whether she was I don’t know.
However, she was adamant that the listing had been canceled. When I explained the home had been re-listed, she seemed relieved. You would think the first thing an agent would do is check to see if the home has been re-listed. Well, they will learn.
Now that the market is beginning to pick up, I have reset the days on market on all of my active listings. We had good open houses on Sunday, too, which indicates we might be leaving the seasonal slow down. I hate to see buyers automatically and wrongly assume there is something wrong with a house because it sat on the market through the winter.
How to Reset the Days on Market for Sacramento Listings
We reset the days on market as many times as it takes to get a full price offer.
Agents in Sacramento tend to ask a lot of questions about why I reset the days on market for my listings. My listings confuse them. But that’s because it can be complicated to ensure the seller receives the highest price, and I do whatever it takes to make it happen. I realize it looks screwy to them, but Sacramento agents are not my target. My target is homebuyers who receive listings from MLS.
Homebuyers put a lot of credence into how long a property has been for sale. Much more than that aspect probably deserves, but they don’t know how else to analyze a listing. The perception homebuyers latch onto is a home must be worth less if it’s been on the market for a while. Sometimes it is true and sometimes it is not. It is not a true statement in all cases.
But when we reset the days on market, all of a sudden a home the buyer might have passed by otherwise, is now all brand new and sparkly. Buyers love brand new listings. I see it all the time, and I see it in my own real estate practice. For instance, I might examine days on market when I am listing a home that has sold at some point in the past.
It gives me a clue as to how long it might take me. Or, take a home that was on the market for 500 days, and when it came back as a brand new listing — because the agent reset the days on market — it sells in one day. Sometimes, homes are located in small pockets of isolated subdivisions, in a spot that totally is residential and nobody knows exactly where it is. Those can take longer to sell.
To reset the days on market, you need a Modification of Terms to withdraw the existing listing from the market, and a new listing signed by the seller. It won’t reset all of the days on market because the cumulative still remain. Fortunately, nobody pays much attention to the COM because it could have been overpriced, listed with another agent and now the right agent has the listing.
I always prepare my sellers, too, for the aftermath. Because once a listing is withdrawn, the ambulance chasers don’t always look to see if home has been relisted. They just pick up the phone to call the seller. It’s good practice to let the seller know she will receive calls from agents begging for the listing and trashing her lazy, no-good-for-nothing agent who couldn’t sell her home. That always gets a chuckle.
Further, I should say that agents can be a suspicious sort. Constantly thinking somebody is pulling a fast one or doing something against the law. They just come out and blatantly lob accusations. I’ll give you an example. A listing in Elk Grove goes on the market a bit below market. The seller receives a full-price offer and decides she does not want to sell to the buyers because we didn’t receive multiple offers.
So, to avoid an MLS notation of the sort, we pull the listing from MLS, raise the price, and put it back as a new listing. Same buyers offer new list price again. This time the seller accepts the offer. No sooner do we get into escrow but the buyers decide to cancel. Why? Dunno. Means we pull the listing again from the market and reset the days on market.
Right away, we get a new buyer. We get down to closing and the buyer decides to cancel. I manage to get my hands on the appraisal and discover the home appraised for $1,000 more. We raise the price to match the appraisal and put it back on the market. Before we received another offer, the buyers who canceled decide to revoke the cancellation and close after all. At the new price.
See? Nothing hokey going on. I’m just doing my job as a top Sacramento listing agent. We have thousands of stories to share about Sacramento real estate.
