09/09/2026
The side of real estate we don’t talk about enough…
Today, after 162 days on the market with me, my seller decided to cancel the listing for the second time.
Before I took it on, the property had already been listed with another Realtor for 222 days a year prior.
That’s 384 days of combined market exposure more than a full year of trying to get this home sold.
And the frustrating part? Buyers liked the home.
We had professional photography and video, strong online exposure, social media marketing, tons of inquiries, couple of showings and plenty of follow-up. The marketing was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
But the same objection kept coming back:
The monthly pad fee was simply too high for buyers to justify.
And sometimes, that’s the reality of real estate.
You can have great marketing. You can price strategically. You can follow up with every lead and put hundreds of hours into a listing. But there are certain things about a property that neither the seller nor the Realtor can change.
At the end of the day, the market decides value.
As Realtors, we also don’t get paid for the photography, advertising, open houses, phone calls, emails, showings or months of work.
We get paid when the property sells.
So yes, after 162 days of working on this one, it’s disappointing not to put the SOLD sign up.
But I can walk away knowing we gave it everything we had, the marketing did its job, and the market gave us a very clear answer.
Not every listing gets the perfect ending.
That’s part of real estate too — just the part you don’t usually see on social media.