I’m glad you responded! You’ve had some good comments here and I’m always happy to read your perspective.

While there are many houses for sale that are vacant, many that have been on the market for a long time have been and still are occupied so the premise that something that’s been on the market a long time is somehow in poorer condition isn’t a fair characterization.

Listing agents need to do everything they can to get their seller’s home to sell… relisting is one tool in the tool chest!

The rest of your remarks are why relisting properties can be helpful… buyers will re-evaluate the property and try to determine what has changed. The very fact that they gave it a second look is what we’re looking for as agents. While I believe that relisting without doing anything else does not help significantly, tying in a price reduction or some other inducement in conjunction with the relisting can be good.

With so many properties on the market today, it is easy for buyers to simply write-off properties at first glance and then dismiss it from their searches from that point on.

I agree that the listings priced correctly for their condition, location and amenities are still selling quickly (30-60 days) but that listings that have been for sale for much longer times could now be very saleable at their current prices.

I’m a buyer right now. (Have been for years, actually; sometimes I think it’ll never happen!) I agree that relisting a house may not exactly be “unethical.” But in this market, I really do think it sometimes smacks of desperation. I know the houses in my target area pretty damn well because I’ve been doing searches on them for over three years. Yes, we’re patient buyers

I see a lot of listings come and go. I see a lot of properties get relisted when there’ve obviously been no material updates. I see price changes of $100 weekly in an atwww.t to ping would-be buyers. I won’t buy a house without knowing exactly how long it’s been on the market (in all its listed incarnations). And with the internet, I think it may be harder to fool anyone who tracks the market closely. If you know your market well, you’ll start to recognize relisted houses. To me, the relisting can be a red flag, although these days it’s usually because of an outrageous initial asking price.

And with a relisting, sometimes you can tell why it hasn’t sold by:

- clicking thru the photos – is the kitchen ugly? bad yard? check out the map of the area as well as a bird’s eye and satellite photo. maybe the backyard is a BNSF heavy rail line, but isn’t shown in the listing. maybe the neighborhood isn’t as great as the house (and price) would suggest.

- checking out the property tax statement – who owns the house? Is it John Smith or Deutsche Bank DBA INC of Santa Ynez, Alaska? that’s a tip-off that something’s up.

- checking Zillow’s estimate – obviously not always accurate, but sometimes it can give you an idea of a more “real world” price rather than a seller’s fantasy price.

In the Twin Cities core market, I think a good house at a good price still really won’t take that long to sell. Anything that gets listed and relisted repeatedly should raise eyebrows.