By Mitch Fields, REALTOR® with Century 21 Results · I represented the sellers
Why didn't my house sell the first time?
You listed it. You waited. When it didn't sell, you extended and gave it one more chance at $475,000. And it still didn't sell.
By then, most sellers start to believe the problem is the house.
That's where the sellers of 4240 Spring Ridge Drive in Springs at Burnt Bridge were. A 2017 home in Cumming with four bedrooms and three baths, off the market after months without a buyer.
When it came back, it was the same house. Same condition. No renovation, no staging overhaul, no repairs. And it ended up selling at the same $475,000 the first listing had been asking.
So what was different?
A year of following up
I'd known these sellers for almost a year by the time they hired me. I followed up the whole way. Not pushy. Just consistent.
When they did call, they told me why. The follow-up itself was the proof. If I was that consistent before they'd hired me, they figured I'd be that consistent selling their home.
That's the job before the job.
Knowing the neighborhood without looking it up
I grew up about two miles from Springs at Burnt Bridge. I remember when it was built.
That matters when you're pricing a home that's already been through one listing. I knew the competition on the market at the time, and I knew where a buyer and these sellers were likely to meet.
A two-step price plan, agreed before the sign went up
I didn't relaunch it at the number the last listing ended on. I listed it at $489,999.
Before we went live, the sellers and I agreed on the plan. If $489,999 drew interest but not the right offers, we'd move to $475,000. No panic, no surprise. It was step two of the same plan.
That's exactly how it played out. The home got plenty of interest and plenty of traction at $489,999, but not the offers we wanted. So we moved to $475,000, as planned, and everyone who had been watching it saw a fresh price on a home they already knew.
If we'd started right at $475,000, there would have been nowhere left to go.
Pricing this way doesn't always work. Start too high without knowing your numbers and you just teach the market to ignore you. Here, I knew mine.
Under contract in 32 days
Thirty-two days after it went back on the market, it was under contract. It closed at $475,000.
A home that didn't sell isn't always a home with a problem
This house didn't change between the first listing and the second. Same rooms, same condition, the same asking price in the end. What changed was everything around it: the follow-up that earned the sellers' trust, a launch priced to leave room, and a plan the sellers understood before day one.
If your listing expired, don't assume your house is the problem. Get a second opinion first. Request an agent-prepared review of your home and I'll tell you honestly what I think held it back and what I'd do differently.
More transaction stories, or see recently sold homes.
