When is the PERFECT time to list your home for sale???
- Thread starter IowaRealEstate
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I would have given April and May as the best time for a quick sale. But there is a (depending on the Economy) very good time for more $$$ in late July and August when people are pressed to find a house prior to the start of school or prior to Fall. With fewer home on the market the seller may have an advantage.
in what months. all 12 months are shown
This info isn't really useful. It just shows when people listed their homes. How does that correlate to sales?
The answer to the question is there is no perfect time to list. It depends on what your local market is like at a specific time.
However, this picture is useful as it shows when the heaviest listing periods are (the months in red, and specifically the 10 days circled) so unless you want to list when everyone else is and have massive competition, you might want to avoid those times if possible.
You have a graphic that shows the opposite? The 10 days when the least amount of people list?
Areas in red. My position however is not listing/ selling them, it is housing during their transition from selling leading to their next purchase.
Complete agree Mark! We went through the whole sell and buy a house thing in 2013 and listed in mid July right after a real hot time on the market where about everyone we talked to was telling us houses just flew off the market in April and May when we were interviewing agents in late June/early July. Took us until early November to even get an offer after having all kinds of traffic and a couple price drops. Probably took a little less than we would have liked but didn't want to miss out on a house we were wanting to buy that was still on the market and just dropped in price.
Very fortunate that I have an uncle that owned his own real estate company at one time and now teaches continued education real estate classes to get a 2nd opinion on things just in case our agent was trying to sugar coat things which luckily wasn't the case but having a relative with the knowledge to be a little more blunt with you than your agent might was a plus. The thing that got us worried was my uncle told us if we didn't have it sold by Thanksgiving the chances of an offer between Thanksgiving and the first of the year goes down significantly because not nearly as many people that are house shopping during the holiday months. In hindsight wish we had listed in that April or May instead of when we did so we could of had more house possibilities to buy but we just didn't have the time to get the house in sale condition by then.
For any of you out there going through the house buying or selling process for the first time, these posts Mark has been putting out there are pretty good from what I have read. The biggest decision you'll make especially trying to sell a house is picking an agent. Interview at least 3 and ask them all the same set of questions, you want someone that is knowledgeable and you are confident will work for you and doesn't view you as just another commission. Two big questions we asked were what was their past year's sales as in how many listings and some dollar figures and days on the market. If they can't tell you at least some kind of figures on their sales that should be a red flag. The other question is about doing open houses because while I'm sure a lot of agents don't like to do them they should be willing to if it keeps you satisfied. You probably will hear the line "you won't sell your house from someone that saw it on an open house" and statistically I'm sure there is some truth to that but the more people viewing your home the better and someone that viewed ours on our 3rd open house ended up being our buyer so don't let someone make you think an open house is pointless because depending on the house some of the older more moderate priced ones will get looks from investment groups looking for potential rental properties or flips or you have people that just don't have time during the week to schedule a viewing or doesn't have an agent yet that will hop around town looking at open houses.
Very fortunate that I have an uncle that owned his own real estate company at one time and now teaches continued education real estate classes to get a 2nd opinion on things just in case our agent was trying to sugar coat things which luckily wasn't the case but having a relative with the knowledge to be a little more blunt with you than your agent might was a plus. The thing that got us worried was my uncle told us if we didn't have it sold by Thanksgiving the chances of an offer between Thanksgiving and the first of the year goes down significantly because not nearly as many people that are house shopping during the holiday months. In hindsight wish we had listed in that April or May instead of when we did so we could of had more house possibilities to buy but we just didn't have the time to get the house in sale condition by then.
For any of you out there going through the house buying or selling process for the first time, these posts Mark has been putting out there are pretty good from what I have read. The biggest decision you'll make especially trying to sell a house is picking an agent. Interview at least 3 and ask them all the same set of questions, you want someone that is knowledgeable and you are confident will work for you and doesn't view you as just another commission. Two big questions we asked were what was their past year's sales as in how many listings and some dollar figures and days on the market. If they can't tell you at least some kind of figures on their sales that should be a red flag. The other question is about doing open houses because while I'm sure a lot of agents don't like to do them they should be willing to if it keeps you satisfied. You probably will hear the line "you won't sell your house from someone that saw it on an open house" and statistically I'm sure there is some truth to that but the more people viewing your home the better and someone that viewed ours on our 3rd open house ended up being our buyer so don't let someone make you think an open house is pointless because depending on the house some of the older more moderate priced ones will get looks from investment groups looking for potential rental properties or flips or you have people that just don't have time during the week to schedule a viewing or doesn't have an agent yet that will hop around town looking at open houses.
So, a better time to list would be right before these 'hot' months rather than during or right after?
In theory, yes. Nobody can predict the exact right time to list, but based on eliminating some of your competition, I would suggest a bit earlier than later if given a choice.
I think you are right! My bad for reading it too quick.
No data on that, but Winter is the worst time for sure. Even with that said however, winter can be busy like right now. It depends heavily on the weather and the weather is great now, all things considered.
You make some good points. I do have a different theory on open houses though. I have not done them for the past few years. The data simply did not support doing them. Less than a 10% chance of success selling through an open. I also stopped doing them for these reasons.
1. I want buyers coming through my seller's door that are pre-approved.
2. They are risky. You are opening up your home to complete strangers. People do steal things (prescription drugs) and can be up to no good.
3. Owners hate them. It is tough to be gone for 4 hours at a time on a weekend, especially if you have kids.
4. I am almost always available to show a home. Just call me if you want to see if and I will meet you there
I have yet to meet an owner who has not hired me because of these beliefs. They typically agree with these points.
The optimist in me says the best time to list is in 3 weeks, which is when my house hits the market.
When you are ready to. Have the house staged perfectly, decorated, and perfectly clean every time they show it, and let them show every time they want to. I've sold two houses in under 1 month. Thats all you need to do.
I can see both sides of the argument and based on the preferences of the client there is no right or wrong reason behind it but I guess my thought is if a client wants to do an open house that is something they need to say upfront when interviewing agents. Regarding your availability to show a home, unless a seller is open to dual agency the seller's agent is not going to be the one showing the home it will be the potential buyer's agent and will be based on the seller allowing them to show it on the date and time the potential buyer wants too. Dual agency is one thing I feel people should avoid because having the same agent representing both the buyer and seller could turn into a conflict of interest should something strange go wrong with the sale. I sure wouldn't want the buyer's agent to know what I know and I sure want my agent to be on my side if the buyer is making a sale difficult.
For us we wanted to do at least 1 open house once the house went on the market and then as it sat on the market and our showings got further apart even with a couple price drops we wanted to do something to draw some new traffic in so we'd ask for a 2 hour open house not long after a price drop. You are absolutely right, the stats show selling it because someone saw it on an open house is not high but if you don't have an open house then you just decreased your odds of possibly bringing in a buyer by not at least trying too. Again all preference of the seller but if they want to do one and an agent says they don't do them, if it's an important thing for you as a seller then that agent may not be right for you.
Someone just said, make sure you stage your house before you put it on the market. We got a POD and put anything we did not absolutely need in the house in it including personal stuff such as pictures or team décor. You don't want someone associating the house with someone or a theme, the more neutral the better because you want a buyer to be able to vision themselves living there not someone else. It really opens up your house to look bigger than it is too. It may not feel like home while it is that way but you are trying to move out of it so technically you shouldn't feel so attached to the things that make it feel like "home" because you will move those to your next home. Plus with having open houses we also then had less items exposed that someone might mess with and we locked up anything of value or items that could be stolen easily.
