What is a Ghost Listing? How long should you leave your home on the market?

What Are Ghost Listings?

Ghost Listings, in this case, are homes that appear on the market, suddenly disappear, and then return to the market some months later. It's not a spooky spectre you're seeing, but a smart Owner / Agent understanding the online algorithm and buyer behaviours.

There's various reasons why you would want to do this.

For example, if you put a property online for the first time, it will shoot to the top of the rankings of latest properties. But as a property goes down and down the latest listings, you might find people start to ask, "why hasn't this property gone yet?" and a cavalcade of worst-case scenarios might follow. The price is too high, there's something wrong with the house, or, it's not gone yet, so there might be price reduction soon could be the dreaded first thoughts.

In actuality, the reasoning could be much simpler. For example, the time of year; properties in summer tend to do better on the market due to better weather conditions for viewing, more time to prepare before the holidays and recovering from lower income during the new years - a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps you put the property on the market in Summer - well, so has everyone else, so an overcrowded market could be the cause for lack of interest.

Whilst not an indicator of long-term struggles, Right Move research suggests that even the time of day that you upload / update a property can have an impact on its success at grabbing the attention of buyers.

"New data from Rightmove reveals that Friday at 4pm is the most popular time for agents to instantly upload new resale and rental properties to the site"

When you really break down the broader reasons for why your property may be struggling, the specific little reasons also become more clear.

And there is no shame in realising that now is not the right time for your particular property. What you don't want to do is appear desperate - leaving your property on for months at a time. That is still a perfectly valid strategy - more than likely, you'll get the right buyer eventually, especially if you occasionally update photos, descriptions and the price to show that you're actively searching for buyers and not just leaving the property up there.

Once you put the property back onto the market after a extended break, it will jump back up to the top of the list for latest listings, giving you a whole new market who have begun their search and who have never considered your property before.

Here's some further spooky statistics, sources from DataLoft:

• So-called ghost listings – homes that vanish from the market before returning later – often sell faster the second time around.

• While 53% of homes find buyers within five weeks and 76% within three months, the odds of selling after that sink to a chilling 14.5%.

• Yet for the 90,000 homes withdrawn and later resurrected after a three-month rest, 42% went on to sell – almost triple the success rate of those left to haunt the listings. It seems a little time in the shadows can be the magic spell that brings a deal back from the dead. Visualisation: Dataloft by PriceHubble. Source: TwentyEA

Are you looking to sell because you're nervous about the upcoming Renters Rights Bill 2025? Well, we have a guide to the Renters Rights Bill 2025 on our Northampton Property Blog, which you can read & watch right now. It may be Halloween, but that doesn't mean you need to be scared!

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Contact Northwood Northampton Estate Agents for advice on selling in Northampton.

Northampton@northwooduk.com / JasonWells@Northwooduk.com 

01604 607080

Jason Wells is Branch Manager at Northwood Northampton. With over 15 years’ experience in the local property market, Jason specialises in helping landlords competitively price their properties reduce risk, and build long-term success.