What you should know when selling a house

Sell your property with confidence

Making a big decision is never easy, especially when you’re aware it will affect your entire life. How should you know if it’s the right time for you to sell your property, the place where you most likely spent many years and is filled with memories? This is always a serious step and it’s best to have someone you can trust guiding you throughout the process. I am eager to support you during your journey - from the beginning to closing the deal. Here’s a short guide I’ve prepared to help you decide if you’re ready for the big step.  

The annual real estate doldrums …

Most advice you’ll hear about selling will be different, but there’s one time of year that most experts believe you should avoid when it comes to listing a home: the fall/holidays.

There aren’t too many buyers incentivized to disrupt their lives and move into a new home during the holiday season, which means they aren’t really thinking about shopping for one, either. Additionally, buyers with kids in school are reluctant to change schools in the middle of the year so that's why the market slows down in August and goes to sleep until January.  Lastly, most renters have leases that expire during the summer. They typically have to give their landlords 60 days notice if they don't plan on renewing their leases so they bow out of the market before summer starts.

And fewer buyers means less of a chance that your home will be one of the homes that sells.

… And the peak selling season

Many people erroneously think that winter is a bad time to sell a home. Who wants to move when it is zero degrees outside they think. Waiting till summer because you are proud of your lovely garden or beautiful pool is also a mistake. We can take pictures of all of that the year before.

The fact is that people have renewed vigor when the new year starts. They loose weight, get organized and decide they are going to find a home. Therefore, January is a good time to sell. The nice thing about January is that there won't be as many listings competing with you. It gets hotter in February, March, April and May. June is still good. The market starts to stall in July. Ideally, you want to have your home under contract before the week of July 4th. You can still get a good price in July and August but you don't want to put your home on the market unless you have to from September through December. Even if it means putting a your home on the market when you haven't finished staging, avoid the fall if at all possible.

Does the day of the week matter?

Actually, it might. According to a couple of different studies, homes that were listed on Thursday or Friday have been found to sell in the shortest length of time for slightly higher prices than any other homes. 

It’s possible that the timing of the weekend is what’s honing Thursday’s and Friday’s edge over the other days of the week. Buyers are more likely to have time to schedule home tours or attend open houses over the weekend, and there are likely to be more of those buyers looking at each house (and therefore more chances of getting an offer, or maybe even multiple offers). 

Timing isn’t everything

Even if you think you’ve nailed the absolute best time to sell your home and you’ve done all you can repair-wise to maximize your chances, there’s one big mistake that could shoot all your efforts right in the foot: Pricing your home incorrectly when you first list it.

Some sellers don’t think this is the huge deal that it really (really!) is. Serious buyers sign up to property watch lists and get an alert as soon as a home is listed on the MLS. Most of the buyers who could buy your home are going to see its listing within the first 48 hours of that listing being “live.”

So you get one big chance to make your home’s big debut in front of its buyers. And if you set the price too high (or too low, for that matter), you’ve blown it.