Your listing just turned six months old and nobody brought a cake? Before cutting the price, change the angle.
Your property has been online for months, viewings are rare and you are being told to cut the price again. Before giving in, take an hour to review the situation methodically: here is a six-step action plan.
1. Review the listing's figures
Ask your agency, or check the property portals yourself, for four figures: the number of views of the listing, the number of enquiries, the number of viewings and the written feedback after viewings. They show where the problem lies:
- few views: the listing is poorly placed or poorly titled, or the price keeps it out of buyers' searches;
- many views, few enquiries: the photos or the text do not appeal;
- viewings with no offer: the real property disappoints compared with the listing, or the same flaw comes up at every viewing.
Each case calls for a different response. A price cut only solves one of them.
2. Read the viewing feedback again
Visitors' comments are the most valuable material, and often the least used. If three visitors out of five mention road noise, the kitchen or the lack of a garden, the issue is not the price but how that point is presented, or the type of buyers being brought in.
An unusual property does not appeal to the same buyers as a standard house.
3. Check what the listing does not say
Extra land, extension potential, an outbuilding that can be converted, a second access, possible division: these assets are often missing from the listing because nobody has checked them. A buyer does not pay for potential they cannot see. Conversely, a legal or technical obstacle discovered late (easement, undeclared building, non-compliant sewage system) makes sales fall through at the preliminary agreement: better to know it and explain it from the start.
4. Choose the right buyers
An unusual property does not appeal to the same buyers as a standard house. A large estate may interest a bed-and-breakfast project, a building may interest investors, a large plot may interest builders or development professionals. As long as the listing targets the wrong buyers, viewings lead nowhere, whatever the price.
5. Review the sale mandate
Look at your mandate: simple or exclusive, duration, exit conditions. An exclusive mandate cannot be terminated during its first three months; after that, it can be terminated at any time with fifteen days' notice, by registered letter. Using several agencies at different prices blurs the property's image; conversely, a property that stays for months in a single shop window with no new strategy ends up worn out.
6. Start again with a new presentation
Taking the property off the market for a few weeks, fixing the points identified, redoing the photos and the text, then relisting it as a new property often works better than yet another price cut. If the price really has to move, do it once, decisively, based on actual sales in the area (public DVF database) rather than on competing listings.
What about an outside view?
When you have lived with a property for years, or have been marketing it for months, you no longer see what is blocking the sale. An outside view, with no listing to defend, quickly spots whether the problem lies in the price, the presentation, the target buyers or an obstacle to remove. We look at your case free of charge and with no commitment.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to sell a house?
It depends on the area and the property. After a few months with no offer, it is better to analyse what is blocking the sale than to wait or cut the price by reflex.
Can I change agency during a mandate?
A simple mandate can be shared with other agencies. An exclusive mandate cannot be terminated during its first three months; after that, it can be terminated with fifteen days' notice by registered letter.
Should I take a property off the market before relisting it?
Often yes: a few weeks' break lets you fix the listing and come back with a new presentation, without the image of a property that will not sell.
Sources: Loi n° 70-9 du 2 janvier 1970 (loi Hoguet) et décret n° 72-678 du 20 juillet 1972, article 78 (mandat exclusif : trois mois irrévocables, puis préavis de quinze jours) · app.dvf.etalab.gouv.fr
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