Rightmove relisting rules
Our buyer fell through and we need to relist our home on the property portals. Our estate agent is saying the Rightmove relisting rules mean we need to reduce the asking price by 2% to get our house relisted in the top spot on Rightmove, is this correct?
What are Rightmove relisting rules?
Portal juggling was the practice by some agents where they purposely removed and relisted a property to make it appear to be a new listing. Under new Rightmove relisting rules, if a home is removed and republished, it now shows the ORIGINAL publication date to prevent this practice from deceiving would be buyers.
Under the new Rightmove relisting rules, to get a completely new listing, you need to be completely offline with any estate agent (as your address is linked) for sales: 14 weeks (3.5 months) and lettings 14 days (2 weeks).
This presents a challenge for sellers who may have had a buyer fall through and need to relist their home. If buyers view your home as one that has lingered on the market, your chances of securing the best offers can be reduced, so what can you do? We look at your options.
Do I need to reduce the price by 2% to be relisted?
Our agent has told us that, because of new Rightmove relisting rules, the only way they could relist our property with the portal was if we were to reduce our asking price by at least 2%’.
The Rightmove relisting rules do say that a property will be ‘refreshed’ as a new listing and will be sent out via their email alerts system if it is reduced by an amount greater than 2% of the asking price. But there are no rules and restrictions on re-listing having to be on the basis of an accompanying mandatory reduction. For an agent to say so is simply not true.
Other ways to keep your Rightmove listing fresh
Speak to your agent and ask for other marketing suggestions beyond lowering the price to make your relisted home stand out and appear as fresh as possible.
They could offer to re-take photos, refresh the lead photo on the listing, add new photos onto the listing and enhance the description and short summary.
You could consider adding an online virtual house tour to catch the attention of buyers.
If you want to stand out from other listings, you or your agent could pay for a premium or featured listing to highlight the property.
You are after all paying the estate agent commission to market the property. Make sure your agent is maximising your home’s exposure. See our guide on What does an estate agent do for more marketing ideas.
If you are considering changing your estate agent, see our advice guide on Changing estate agents. And see our advice on how to find the best estate agent.
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