When you’re buying a home, one of the first things you probably ask is how long the house has been on market. According to about.com, days on market matter. There’s a formula for determining the average days on market that’s usually determined by looking at the last 30 days to six months of sold listings.
When it comes down to it, it’s all about the home you want. However, as a buyer, when you see a home has been listed for extensive days on market, you might wonder why other buyers passed it up. Is there something wrong with the home? Not necessarily.
The website says there are several common reasons on why homes stay on the market for a long time.
1) The main reason is overpricing followed by little seller motivation. Sellers sometimes want to “test the market” by putting a super high price tag on it. This is the worst mistake you can make according to about.com.
2) Sellers can sometimes be stubborn, wanting to wait out the market until they can get the asking price.
3) Due to a down real estate market, it might simply be taking longer to sell.
4) Sometimes, a house maybe unavailable or unsuitable to show.
about.com says a common practice among real estate agents is to withdraw a listing after a certain number of days and relist it as a new listing. Sometimes after months on the market, it’s not unusual for a home to sell within days after showing up as a new listing. As a buyer, ask your agent if the home has been listed before. You can also do your homework by searching an address on Google or Yahoo. All of the previous online listings for the property should show up. If all else fails, it never hurts to ask neighbors.