Are you contemplating taking your home the market? If you are, you are not the only one. As you can imagine, for various reasons, a lot of people have doubts and consider removing their property for sale. If this is you right now, no doubt you may be wondering if this is possible.

In this article, we take a closer look at whether this is possible and if there are any costs associated with doing so. 

May I remove my home from the market whenever I choose?

Yes, you can remove your home from the market at any moment before you exchange contracts.

Once you have signed a legal contract with the buyer, you have now agreed to the transaction and are therefore legally obligated to keep your end of the deal. Failure to do so may have legal consequences. 

If you decide to pull out from selling, do you have to pay the estate agent?

The terms of your agreement with your real estate agent will determine this. In their contracts, many real estate agents require that you list the property with them for a certain amount of time.

Depending on the agency, the length of time can be very different, from as short as one week to as long as three months or even longer.

Could you be liable for a withdrawal fee from the estate agent?

The answer is, yes, you may be liable for a withdrawal fee. However, an estate agent must inform you of this before you agree to utilise their services and contract with them. So, before you sign anything, make sure to read the contract thoroughly.

As previously indicated, withdrawal fees are almost always applicable for a limited time at the commencement of a listing.

From the perspective of estate agents, locking the seller to the contract for a short amount of time makes sense from a commercial perspective because they spend a lot of time and attention on each listing. Working time and resources have been dedicated to selling your home, and someone has to pay for this.

In addition, if you believe you will have to withdraw from the market within a month, now is probably not the greatest moment for you to go the market. This is another reason why it’s a good idea to think it over and make sure you are really ready to sell.

What are the reasons why someone would take their home off the market?

People’s motives for deciding to pull their homes off the market are just as varied as the reasons they initially decided to sell. For sure, there are some wacky, one-of-a-kind reasons for not selling, but here are some of the more common ones you will find:

To place a fresh listing

If done correctly, this is a frequent reason for pulling a listing, and it has its advantages. Some listings, for a variety of reasons, become dry and inactive. They can look fantastic on a computer screen. Even while the viewings are going well, the properties remain on the market for months at a stretch without shifting.

Buyers are often instinctively suspicious of properties that have been on the market for a long time. They may consider this a bad omen and be put off by it. They may be wondering what others know about this property that they don’t. If it hasn’t been snapped up by someone else, there must be a problem with it.

In most cases, however, there is nothing wrong with the property, but prospective buyers are still suspicious. It’s human nature. The technique of pulling the property off the market, allowing it to settle for a while, and then re-listing it can be a good one.

However, one thing needs to be kept in mind. In the past, there were worries that this technique was occurring too often with sellers. This occurred as a result of the proliferation of property portals on the internet and the simplicity with which home hunters can verify things like the length of time a property has been advertised for sale.

Consequently, the major property portals agreed to alter their terms of service to counteract any underhandedness or so-called portal-refreshing. So, waiting 14 weeks for relisting is now mandatory for some portals.

Because of these new constraints, a quick refresh is now unfeasible. So, if you’re in a hurry to get your house off the market and sell it, it’s probably best to talk with your agent about creative ways to market it and shift it quickly.

Your circumstances have changed

Life has a tendency to get in the way of our best laid intentions. There are far too many to list here, and no doubt you can think of many of them. That’s just life, and we have to roll with it. Sometimes it can be something as simple as just changing your mind for no particular reason.

Concerns about money

As with the previous point, this can potentially be a large number of things. If your home has been on the market for some time, you should be aware that a lot may happen over that time period. People are laid off, get married or divorced, learn they’re expecting another kid, and a slew of other life changes.

Selling a home for a variety of reasons may cause some homeowners to reconsider their financial condition and whether or not they want to go forward with the sale at all.

Changes in the real estate market

Another typical cause for sellers to have a change of heart is a shift in the property market, especially for those whose houses have been advertised for a long time and haven’t sold. Even if you enter a rising market, things may still not go as planned. In a very short time, things can change dramatically, and you could find yourself in a slowing market.

This means that if your seller’s market has flipped, you may want to rethink selling your home at this time and wait a while until things pick up again. After all, who doesn’t want to fetch the best price possible for their home? 

Instead of moving, try to improve

After a period of time on the market, sellers may decide to do home improvements instead. Instead of selling their home and moving to a new one, some sellers decide to do a major renovation on the one they already have.

It’s a terrific idea if you’re willing to put up with the challenges that come with home renovation projects like this. And don’t forget, it’s always possible to place your freshly renovated house on the market when the work is done, or you may stay put and enjoy it for yourself.

Go to another estate agent

If you’ve decided that your current estate agent isn’t living up to your expectations, it may be time to find a new one. Not all estate agents are created equally and some are better than others. Do your research and find out what you can about them, like their track record for selling quickly.

A hunch

Some sellers just change their minds without any particular event causing them to change. The rationale they have may be nothing more than a hunch. And it’s perfectly OK. When it comes to selling your home, you need to be quite sure that now is the perfect moment. You should call your real estate agent right away and speak with them if that’s how you truly feel.