Do you have a listing that's gone more stale than an old loaf of bread? Even with the most careful planning, enthusiastic sellers, and better market conditions… it happens. Having a listing generating little to no interest and racking up days on the market can be frustrating and discouraging, especially for your clients. 

Thankfully, you can steer the ship back on course using these tried and true tactics to breathe new life into your listing.

8 ways you can spruce up your stale listing (and get it noticed again)

Before we get into the hot tips and tricks, we have to address the elephant in the room. According to a recent housing report from the National Association of REALTORS®, days on market, or DOM, for listings has fallen from 24 to 22 days. In most situations, this is considered a shorter DOM than it's ever been in many markets. After all, it is a seller's market right now, and that means listings usually don't last very long in these conditions. 

Still, there are always those listings that seem to sit out a little longer than other listings. And if you're reading that last sentence and nodding your head, you know how frustrating it can be. No matter what type of market we're in, you need to keep these strategies and tactics in your back pocket to get your snoozy listing noticed again.

1. Invest in staging the listing

Investing in home staging can bring a fresh new perspective to the property — literally. You might have already done this, or maybe you're on the fence about whether or not it's really worth it. Consider this if you're curious about staging's impact: about half of all agents profiled in NAR's 2023 Profile of Home Staging shared staging reduced the time the property was on the market. 

The survey also found that about 60% of buyers' agents' clients were affected in some way by home staging. After all, it is how home shoppers can realistically picture themselves living in the space.

To revive a stale listing, consider hiring a professional stager to outfit the home to its highest potential and shift the home's look, feel, and overall vibe. If hiring a pro isn't an option, you can also use helpful artificial intelligence tools like VisualStager, Stager AI, or Virtual Staging AI. These apps take your listing photos and give you options to furnish them completely virtually, allowing you to stage the listing from the convenience of your smartphone or computer — no furniture rental or rearranging necessary.

For even more tips and techniques to DIY your staging, make sure to check out our article "Home staging hacks: How to take any home you're selling from "good" to "great'."

2. Get new listing photos

Just about every single home shopper nowadays starts their home search online, and in a social media-centered world, we're all more visual creatures than ever. NAR's 2024 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trend Report uncovered roughly nine in 10 buyers under the age of 58 valued photos as the most useful website feature in their home search.

Clearly, if you want to hook curious consumers to see your listing, you need to capture their attention with impactful listing photos. Take an honest look at your stale listing's current photo set. Is it representing the home to its fullest? Does it showcase it in an enticing, exciting light? Do the photos feature the amenities of the home? How about the neighborhood and nearby features — are those included, too?

Remember: You're not just selling the house. You're selling the lifestyle that comes with the house. Make sure your photos reflect this. If in doubt, hire a real estate photographer to guarantee you're capturing the listing in all its glory

3. Freshen up the listing description

Once you grab consumers' attention with quality listing photos, you'll want to continue to tell the story of the listing. Enter: the listing description. Let's look at your stale listing's description. Go ahead, pull it up — we'll wait. Got it? Great! Now, we can evaluate the following:

• The intro: The average online consumer only stays on a page for 52 seconds, so you need to hook them in from the very start of the listing description. Create a sort of elevator pitch for the listing by capturing its essence in one brief sentence. Things like "charming bungalow for your city escape!" or "newly-renovated, pool and jacuzzi, a hostess/host's dream!" can pull them in and make them want to continue to read the story.

• The details: Double-check your listing description and make sure you're capturing the most crucial details of the home, beyond its location and number of rooms. Was a new roof installed? Did the sellers make an upgrade in the last decade? Are sellers offering anything to help buyers make their move? Call these things out! These key decision-making details can swing buyers' perceptions and get more interest in your listing.

• The length: Once they start reading, is the description a little too long? You don't want to cut out the important details we just nailed down, but if you've gotten a little too wordy, do your best to trim down and stick to the good stuff potential buyers truly need to know.

Last, but certainly not least, you can outsource this work to our trusted tool ChatGPT. We've taught you how to use ChatGPT to create new listing descriptions in previous blogs. But you can also paste in your current listing description and ask the chatbot to rewrite it to be more exciting, capture the crucial details, and trim it down.

4. Film a walkthrough of the property

To continue to enforce selling the lifestyle of the home, rather than just another property, you need to film a walkthrough. A video walkthrough helps buyers get a better look and feel for the listing, giving them new perspective and insight. What's more, the generational trends report from NAR we mentioned earlier also found a quarter of buyers valued video as an important website feature. Showcase your stale listing in a new, fresh light with the power of video.

Keep it simple, and use your smartphone. Start at the exterior of the home, enter the front door, and go room by room, working your way to the backyard. Use your smartphone and plug in some headphones to record a voiceover narrating what they can do, feel, and experience living in the home. If you need more help knowing what to say, ask ChatGPT to lend a hand. Then, run your video through a tool like Canva or CapCut to add light background music, transitions, captions, and more.

You can now use this video on your real estate website, in marketing campaigns, through email newsletters, and even on your Realtor.com listing.

5. Run a multi-channel marketing campaign

At this point, you're well-prepared to position your listing with new photos, a fresh new video, and a whole lot of motivation to take the property from "stale" to "stellar." You're also in the perfect place to get the word out far and wide with a multichannel marketing campaign.

 "Multichannel" is just a fancy way of saying "on all the marketing platforms you use." Get more eyes on your listing by promoting it across your online presence. Invest in paid marketing campaigns specifically highlighting the listing on your social media profiles and on search engines like Google and Bing. Continue to message with an email newsletter highlighting the listing and create the most ideal target list with contacts in your CRM.

You can also take your reach even further online with Local Expert, which allows you to target home shoppers in your ZIP code with customizable ads specifically highlighting your listing. When prospective buyers search your ZIP code on Realtor.com, they'll see your listing ad. Then, when they head over to Facebook or Instagram, they'll be retargeted with the ad in their feed. Pretty cool, right? It's a great way to support your marketing efforts and get your listing noticed again. 

The sky's the limit, and you've done so much work to breathe new life into this listing. Shorten the DOM and get it noticed again with smart, comprehensive marketing efforts.

6. Host a knockout open house

If you have your open house routine down pat, it actually might be a good idea to shake things up a bit. Start by giving your print materials a bit of a refresh on Canva and have them ready. Use our free open house checklist to start laying the groundwork, and then gear up to host the ultimate open house for your stale listing. Because you need to get your listing noticed again, it's time to put a whole new spin on how you host.

Start by thinking experiential, which means providing visitors with an experience. It can be simple, like timing your open house near an upcoming holiday and theming it accordingly, like the Fourth of July or Halloween. You can take it up a notch and partner with a local business to create goody or grab bags and co-host a raffle. To really go above and beyond, consider getting help from a friend or family member to offer passed hors d'oeuvres and some bubbles.

These little details are relatively easy to plan and can add up in a serious way. Be sure to promote your open house on your social media profiles, extend an exclusive invite to your sphere of prospective buyers, and send out an email invite to relevant buyers in your CRM. Adding an air of exclusivity can also be a nice touch to draw more interest. Oh, and don't forget to gear up to keep this awesome open house looky-loo proof.

7. Talk to sellers to make repairs or upgrades

As you embark on getting your stale listing to shine again, you also need to take an honest look at the property itself, bells and whistles aside. Go back to your initial CMA and consider conducting it again. Then, assess if there are repairs or upgrades that could really move the needle and draw in interested buyers, especially in comparison to nearby, comparable homes. Do the research on what's needed and prepare to discuss it with your sellers, armed with data.

Even if nothing major is needed, a fresh coat of exterior paint or sprucing up the landscaping can make a massive difference for the home's curb appeal. But if repairs or upgrades are needed, and your sellers agree to do them, it's another selling point you can highlight in your marketing, listing description, talk tracks, and much more.

8. Adjust the price

Last, but certainly not least, moving mountains and facelifting your stale listing isn't quite enough to get it noticed again. Go back to your CMA and any other supporting documentation and determine if a price adjustment is warranted to get the listing sold. You may also hire a professional appraiser to gather additional impartial data to shape the home price.

If you determine a price adjustment is the only option, keep in mind it's a crucial conversation to have with your sellers. You'll need to be in top form when it comes to your active listening, empathy, and confidence in calming their concerns about a price adjustment being the right choice. Provide them with ample data, the latest and greatest CMA, and showcase the efforts you've taken to promote the home prior to and throughout its DOM.

Help prevent listings from going stale in the first place

Micro- and macro-level market conditions can make a higher DOM inevitable. To get help preventing stale listings from happening, make sure you're following the steps we outlined above from the very start, and keep interest in the listing high with smart, targeted marketing. Your listing needs to shine online, and if you're not sure where to start with marketing, Realtor.com can help. We have a variety of solutions to help keep your online marketing humming nicely to get your listings — and your brand — seen by home shoppers.

Our real estate marketing options may be a great fit for your stale listing — and all your listings. Explore which product could be the right fit today!