Choosing an agent to sell a home that's been sitting on the market

Selling a home that's languished on the market tests a different set of agent skills than launching a fresh listing. Your next agent inherits doubt—market fatigue, buyer scepticism, and momentum lost to time. The core tension is this: do you want someone who can convince you the price was wrong, or someone who knows how to move a tired property? Rarely is it both, and choosing poorly wastes more time.

How a stalled listing changes what to look for

A property sitting unsold signals one or more problems: price misalignment, poor marketing, wrong buyer pool, or genuine market conditions. An agent stepping in must diagnose which, and be honest about it. This is not the moment to hire based on charm, local fame, or volume of current sales. You need someone with a track record of relisting—of taking over from another agent and closing the sale within a reasonable window.

Ask candidates directly: how many relisted properties have you sold in the past two years, and how long did each take? Their answer tells you whether they specialise in this type of rescue or dabble in it. A mediocre agent will promise a quick sale and fresh marketing. A capable one will spend the first week digging into why the previous listing failed—asking about open house traffic, buyer feedback, price drops, and which marketing channels were used. If they skip this diagnosis, they'll repeat the mistakes.

The second consideration is whether they'll recommend a price reduction. This stings, but it's often unavoidable. An agent who insists the listing was priced fairly and promises to sell it as-is within weeks is lying to you. Market memory is short but real: a property that sat at R2.4 million for six months carries that anchor. An agent who shifts it to R2.2 million and moves it in two months has outperformed one who holds at R2.4 and waits another three. You lose less money and recover your leverage.

Before you hire, ask what price strategy they'd propose and why. Press them on whether they'd recommend a reduction. If they hedge, ask them to show you comparable recent sales in your area and explain the gap between your original listing and those closings. A strong candidate will bring this data to the conversation unprompted.

The agent's firepower and reach matter more now

When a listing is fresh, a solo agent or a small firm can move it if the price is right. A stalled property needs visibility and buyer volume. Consider the agent's or agency's reach:

• Local network and open house traffic (can they attract agents from other firms and their buyers?)
• Marketing spend and digital strategy (do they have budget to refresh photography, video, and online presence?)
• Buyer database (have they sold enough homes in your area to have genuine buyer interest on file?)
• Negotiating power with other agencies (can they incentivise agents to bring clients?)

Small operators and solo agents can excel at relisting if they're in your area and have a deep buyer pool. But if they rely on You Tube and newspaper ads, or lack relationships with other agents, they'll struggle to break through the fatigue that already surrounds your home.

None of this means you must hire a large franchise or high-volume office. But you should ask questions that expose whether your candidate can actually reach more buyers than the last agent did. Ask them to outline their plan for the first month, including which agent networks they'll contact, how they'll refresh the online listing, and whether they'll hold a co-broker open house (not a standard open weekend).

The final weight goes to honesty. The agent who tells you the price needs to drop and shows you why is less fun to hear from than the one who promises the sun. But that difficult conversation is the one that gets homes sold. When you're weighing candidates for a relisting, the ones who make you uncomfortable about price are usually the ones who'll make your property sell. Strove lets you compare multiple agents side by side—including their history with tricky relists—so you can make this call with real information rather than instinct alone.