How Long Should I Leave My House On The Open Market?

The truth is that it’s completely up to you, but the real question is how long is too long when it comes to having your property on the open market? Everyone wants a quick sale and everyone thinks their own property should sell quickly, but that isn’t always reality.

If the property is on the market for a certain period of time, typically a few months, then people may start to question why, is the price point too high? Does it have something wrong with it? Why hasn’t it been snapped up yet? The longer your property is on the market, the less appealing it becomes.

Set Your Expectation

Every area has a different market, some areas sell much quicker than others.

Before putting your home on the market and getting disheartened that it doesn’t sell in the first few days, look at the selling time trends in your area so you can have a realistic expectation on how long it may take to sell.

There’s a fantastic online tool you can use to get this information called Home.co.uk. It will tell you a whole host of useful information from current asking prices, asking price historical reports, selling times and actual selling price of homes in your postcode area.

Using this tool for example you can see in Edinburgh if you have a house between the value of 200K-300K it takes an average of 63 days to agree a sale, whereas if you look at Blackpool for instance over that same value you can see it’s a much slower selling area at 215 days.

Look On Rightmove & Zoopla

It’s fine looking at historic figures on selling times in your area, however you need to do a bit of hands on research yourself, hopefully you know the area quite well.

Looking on Rightmove & Zoopla around your price point and area should give you an idea of what houses are going for, remember though these are only asking prices.

Next door selling their house which is in a better condition for yours & for the same price? Well that could obviously mean a slower sale for yourself!

Not Selling? You Have A Few Options

You’ve looked into the area, you’ve had your property on the market for far longer than the average time, there are a few reasons that it might not be selling as quickly as you anticipated & at this point you have a few options:

Reducing Your Asking Price

Your estate agent might be pushing you to do this, they always do, but reducing your asking price should be the last thing you look to do.

You might be asking too much for your property, but you might not be, and if you reduce the asking price it sets a new marker for your property value which mean it will fetch less if you decide on going down a different avenue such as auction or a quick sale, it can also make you look quite desperate to sell so people will often offer much lower than the value.

That being said, if you have explored all other opportunities, had very few viewings and feel like it’s the only option left then you may want to consider it.

When doing so, think about people’s Rightmove triggers, people often have alerts set for intervals of 10K.

Changing Estate Agent

Is your estate agent doing enough to sell your property?

Do you have to keep pushing them for reports, are they offering ideas, changing listing details, providing all the information about your house and selling points?

You shouldn’t have to push them to make changes and keep you up to date, at the end of the day you’re paying them.

Too many estate agents simply get you to sign up, do the initial work & that’s it.

If they aren’t putting any more effort into selling your property then it may be time to have a change. Make sure you check your contract, and ensure there is no fees that you’ll have to pay to get out.

You also might want to check if they would allow to have two estate agents, if there are no fees paid up front that is!

Going To Auction

Another alternative you have is to put your house up for auction. Selling at auction can mean that you get a relatively quick sale, but it just depends if your property has interest and a reasonable asking price.

We’ve written a page all about auctions, the process and pro’s and con’s, you can find out more by visiting our “Selling A House At Auction” page.

Choosing A Quick Sale Company

Have you considered a service like ourselves? We offer a solution as cash buyers in which we can purchase your home in as little as 7 days.

We offer below market value but the difference is often made up by the cost of estate agents, solicitor fees and bills over the duration of a typical sale, as we cover all your fees.

You can find out more about our Sell House Fast service here. If you decide to get a quote on your property, we will get back to you with an initial valuation in 24 hours, and at no point do you have any obligation to sell, so it’s worth a try right?

Simply Wait

Your other option is to just wait. It may sound simple but chances are your property will eventually sell if you have it at a good price point, so just sit tight and wait for the right buyer to come along.