When a home is not selling, some sellers feel the need to reset the Days on Market shown in the MLS.

Let’s take a closer look at how a buyer might see this.

Buyers care most about the price of the home, what it looks like, and where it is located. They don’t say to themselves I won’t buy a home that has been on the market for over 60 days. If the price was lowered and is now priced right, that home that was sitting on the market for a while could now get multiple offers.

Buyers do look at Days on Market to get an idea of how flexible the seller is. So there is a possibility if you reset the Days on Market and the buyer does not notice the past listing they will feel you are less flexible with your price, as sellers tend to be less flexible when they first list and more flexible after they have been on the market for a period of time. This means resetting the Days on Market could prevent a buyer from making a lower offer as they might assume you will not be interested in it. So in this scenario resetting the Days on Market might cause you to lose an offer.

Another issue with resetting the Days on Market is if they notice you withdrew and then relisted again, buyers might wonder why. Is it just you are trying to hide the Days on Market or is there some other reason you had to withdraw? Perhaps there was an issue with the home you had to fix. Even if it was just to hide the Days on Market, buyers could get concerned with sellers who attempt to hide something. It brings up the question, would there be other things a seller might hide.

With the Oahu MLS, 15 days is required after withdrawing a listing to relist it again. During these 15 days while you are not listed you could lose a potential buyer. We figured out a way around this 15-day rule, but most agents will have you wait 15 days before it can be relisted and you can’t get an offer when you are not listed.

So resetting the Days on Market is not something we recommend, but we will do it if the seller requests it. We believe if a home is sitting too long the best thing you can do is drop the price. This shows you are interested in selling and gets you closer to the market price where your home will sell. All homes are easy to sell and sell fast at the right price, and all homes are impossible to sell when priced too high. The market might be telling you that your price is too high if you have been listed over 30 days with no offers.