If you’re trying to sell your Edmonton home, and your listing expired in the past few months, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, between September and December 2008 almost 6000 listings expired in Edmonton – about 50 more listings expired than sold!

In other words, you had a better chance of expiring than you did selling over the past few months. If you’re among the home owners in Edmonton that are faced with the dilema of re-listing your home, there are ways to improve your odds. Before you re-list, consider all your options and ask yourself these questions:

  1. Marketing - How was your home marketed on the MLS? Was there a link from the MLS to a web site dedicated to your home, where buyers could see dozens of photos and find out all the additional information they could dream of? Or was there a link to your agent’s home page, advertising other listings? Was there a link at all? Was your home advertised on other web sites such as Google? How many times were your ads viewed? Could you find your home if you searched for it on Google? If you don’t think good online marketing matters, know this: most of our ads get about 100,000 impressions a month, and each home’s web site gets upwards of 1,000 visits a month and that’s on top of the 20,000 people that come to our main site each month.
  2. Presentation - Did your Realtor help you stage your home for showings? Did you have professional photography or just photos your Realtor took with their point and shoot camera? How about custom print ads? What were the hilite sheets at your home like? Dull photocopies or professionally produced custom colour sheets?
  3. Negotiations - Did your Realtor coach you on how to deal with offers and what to expect? Did they explain all your options? What about dealing with lowball offers? Did you feel you were prepared and in control of the offer process (if you even got any offers!)?
  4. Price - How did your asking price compare to the sale price of similar homes that sold while you were listed? Did your Realtor keep you informed of sales in your neighbourhood? Did they help you determine a reasonable price for your home or just tell you what you wanted to hear?
    If you want to sell now, should you try the same strategy that has already failed you, or a new strategy, with better marketing and presentation, a more experienced negotiator and a more realistic price?

In 2008, over 90% of our company’s listings sold.

So, if you want to ge your home sold, your first step is to meet with some Realtors and see how their sales record stands up. Contact us today for more information, or get started with a free online home evaluation.