What Happens When You Relist Your House for Sale in Houston

Houston real estate is a seller’s market right now. What we’re seeing is a lot of sellers who list their houses expecting to get top dollar and a favorable deal. Unfortunately, sometimes a seller’s eagerness to get an amazing return on their investment can cause them to make mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes a home seller in Houston can make is to relist your house for sale. 

What does “re-listing” your house mean?

Relisting your house is what happens when you list your house for sale in Houston, take the house off the market for a time, and then relist it for sale in the real estate market again. To people who aren’t involved in buying and selling houses every day, this can often seem like a good idea. After all, if you aren’t getting the kind of offers you want for your house, why not try to take it off the market and relist it when demand for housing is higher?

Related: Why Houston Real Estate is a Seller’s Market Right Now

The truth is, relisting a house and going back on the market is almost always very bad. It sends exactly the wrong message to potential home buyers and their real estate agents. Here’s why:

1. All future buyers will assume the house has something wrong.

When a house is listed for sale and is then taken off the market, it tells potential home buyers and their real estate agents that something is wrong with the house. They will believe that the home did not sell for its listed price because other potential buyers found something wrong and did not make an offer. Then, instead of simply lowering the price, the house was taken off the market. This makes people suspicious! 

2. You can’t convince them otherwise!

Oftentimes, there is a seemingly good explanation for a house being taken off the market and then relisted. Unfortunately for home sellers, that doesn’t matter at all to home buyers and their agents. To potential buyers, every explanation will sound like an excuse. We’ve seen sellers try everything they can to properly explain their honest motivations for relisting a home. It never changes how buyers react.

3. Future buyers will offer substantially less because they believe something’s wrong or you’re desperate.

If your home is relisted, you will not get strong offers. That’s the hard, simple truth! It’s not fair, but buyers see relisted houses as risky opportunities. The only buyers who are likely to be interested will be bargain-hunters. The feeling that a house has been relisted because there is something wrong with it or because you are now desperate to sell is too strong to overcome in most cases. Your house will sell for substantially less than it could have—and that’s if it sells at all!

4. You may not get any buyers.

Many relisted homes in the Houston real estate market simply do attract any interested buyers at all without severe markdowns. Even then, slashing the price for your house also sends the message that there is something badly wrong with it! Once your home is stigmatized in this way, it can sit on the market for months and even years. 

5. Increasing the days on market further stigmatizes the property.

Ideally, your house should be listed for sale and priced to move, exactly when you want to move out of it. The longer a house sits on the market, the more toxic it looks to potential buyers.  People will think it’s overpriced or fatally flawed. In our experience here at Angel Fultz Realty, $5,000 should not be a deal-breaker when negotiating the price of a house. However, the average price reduction when successfully relisting a home in Houston is a whopping $10,000, no matter your price point. The more expensive your home, the more you may have to reduce the price!

How Do I Get the Most Money from Selling My Home in Houston?

In order to get the best return possible for your home in Houston, relisting a property should not be a consideration. Instead, consult an experienced, licensed Realtor® about your options ahead of time. Tell them when you would ideally like to hand over the keys to your property and get your Realtor’s advice on when to list the property. 

Related: When Should I List My House for Sale in Houston?

Remember, timing is important to getting the best price! When to list a house for sale and how much to ask are not questions the average home seller should try to answer without the help of a Realtor. That’s how people end up making big mistakes like relisting their property! 

If you have questions about when and how you should sell your home in Houston, contact us today! We help home sellers get the most money possible when listing their property for sale.