Is there a best time of year to sell a house?

Or, you can just have unbelievably good luck like I did, and even in the South manage to sell a professionally cleaned but completely empty house in 4 days too, like I did in July. :D

Honestly if that buyer hadn't jumped on it, I don't know if I could have sold it in a reasonable time or not. But he did so that was either luck or expertise on my part I suppose. Who knows? :)
 
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W2R said:
Honestly if that buyer hadn't jumped on it, I don't know if I could have sold it in a reasonable time or not. But he did so that was either luck or expertise on my part I suppose. Who knows? :)
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That's how we felt about it at the time when FIL's house sold. He was in the nursing home racking up bills at the rate of $9k/month and was about two months from running out of cash. That it sold so quickly was a huge relief. Medicaid would have paid the nursing home but then they put a lien on the house, a complication to a sale we didn't want to have to deal with.
 
I don't like financial advisors or market timing for securities but I would never sell a house without the best, most local realtor I could find. Stager too. I don't want to guess when the best time to sell is, I want to KNOW, and an experienced realtor knows the right time and what kind of buyer your house will attract. We've done it 3 times now and those pros more than paid for themselves.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
Yes, the house needs to be in move-in condition., and it must be priced competitively. The first is something I can (and will) make happen, the second is a bit more challenging, but the intention.

My first reaction is to put the house on the market as soon as it is ready. Like any investment decision, once it is made, not carrying it out makes it become a problem, another worry in the back of my mind.

On the other hand, listing it at a time when there are few buyers, especially as the holiday season nears, may give it the appearance of "difficult to sell" come next February if a reasonable offer is not immediate. I'm not looking for the highest possible price, but I would like to get fair market value (whatever that is).

On my list of to-do's is to speak with the insurer, although I do not anticipate any issue. Nothing will happen until the current resident moves out, and that is already taking longer than I anticipated.
 
A tangential question, if I may. What is a reasonable range of time between accepting an offer and actually having to vacate? Is it common to be able to stay a few months and pay rent, if needed?

DW has to work until mid June, but I'd like to get our house on the market in the spring.
 
travelover said:
A tangential question, if I may. What is a reasonable range of time between accepting an offer and actually having to vacate? Is it common to be able to stay a few months and pay rent, if needed?

DW has to work until mid June, but I'd like to get our house on the market in the spring.
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My understanding is that if you ask for something like that, it is likely to "queer the deal" for some buyers. What a lot of people do instead, is to have their stuff put in PODS storage, and then make other arrangements (such as renting a furnished apartment on a monthly basis), for the interval. When you are ready to move, your PODS can be delivered to your new home and you are all set.

The buyer states a date for closing in his offer/counteroffer and I think around here it's usually 6 weeks to two months. The buyers do a "walk through" a few days before closing to make sure the condition of the home is what they want upon possession of it. Generally the seller is expected to be completely vacated by that time. Then they get the keys at closing.

If you put it on the market on, say, March 1st, and it sells instantly, it might have a closing date of May 1st. I'd suggest storing your stuff in PODS and staying in an Extended Stay America or some such place for a month or so.
 
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MichaelB said:
Is there a best time of year to sell a house? I'm having this conversation right now as we get DM's home ready to market. It's a small 3 bedrooms and close to the local high school. The realtors we've interviewed think we should list is now (not a surprise), a realtor friend of my brother told him this type of house sells better in early spring when many more families are looking to relocate. Better, as in higher price.

Just wondering what folks here think.
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Wherever I have lived (west coast, mid-west, and east coast) your brother's friend would have been correct. His observation has held true for any house we have either bought or sold.........FWIW.........

Good luck with this project!

:flowers:
 
Just thought I'd update this thread after meeting with some realtors.

One suggested a few repairs, clean and paint, take out the clutter, keep the house furnished (staged). Put on the market now.

Another suggested a fairly long list of changes (easily $1-2K), clean, remove all the furniture (too outdated). Put on the market now.

They both are large and successful realtors. It's no surprise they suggest putting the house on the market now, it's a slow time of year for them. I am surprised that the two have such opposite views on touching up, maintenance, and staging.
 
MichaelB said:
Just thought I'd update this thread after meeting with some realtors.

One suggested a few repairs, clean and paint, take out the clutter, keep the house furnished (staged). Put on the market now.

Another suggested a fairly long list of changes (easily $1-2K), clean, remove all the furniture (too outdated). Put on the market now.

They both are large and successful realtors. It's no surprise they suggest putting the house on the market now, it's a slow time of year for them. I am surprised that the two have such opposite views on touching up, maintenance, and staging.
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That's a tough decision. I like the second realtor's approach, but who's to say which realtor is better, or if that approach is better? Maybe they are thinking of marketing the house to different subsets of the buyer population.

If I was in your situation, I think I'd ditch logic and go with the realtor that my gut told me was best. Then I'd do exactly what he says to do.
 
W2R said:
That's a tough decision. I like the second realtor's approach, but who's to say which realtor is better, or if that approach is better? Maybe they are thinking of marketing the house to different subsets of the buyer population.
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Neither has articulated this, but this is a good point, that they are most likely thinking of different segments of potential buyers.

If I was in your situation, I think I'd ditch logic and go with the realtor that my gut told me was best. Then I'd do exactly what he says to do.
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Good suggestion. This is what I will do.
 
MichaelB said:
On the other hand, listing it at a time when there are few buyers, especially as the holiday season nears, may give it the appearance of "difficult to sell" come next February if a reasonable offer is not immediate.
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+1 (my view)
I am still seeing the house on my street with the sale sign (@ 48 days). It's priced right but just not getting sold.

On the other hand ...
Have you asked the realtor about the chances of getting a good price and closing it at this time of the year? Maybe the realtor(s) can put your worries to rest. Especially since the real estate market is so localized.

I was curious about a topic mentioned by another poster, the staging. Is this worth it and how does one decide? Are there specific price points, like house price above $500K or $ 1M etc where it makes more sense? My house costs nothing like that, and I have never considered it.
 
To update, I interviewed another realtor, and the contrast could not be greater. Made me wonder if they were reading this thread. :) Their guidance: the market to sell is stronger in February / March, especially this house (small 3 bedroom) because the greatest prospect segment is families with school-age children. Staging helps but more important is to have the house in good repair, clean, move-in condition. Numerous improvements suggested by others would be nice to have but the cost would not be completely recovered. Commission is also lower.

One more interview to go.
 
DEC-1982 said:
I was curious about a topic mentioned by another poster, the staging. Is this worth it and how does one decide? Are there specific price points, like house price above $500K or $ 1M etc where it makes more sense? My house costs nothing like that, and I have never considered it.
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Staging can take many forms. At its extreme, they move out all your stuff and put in shiny new furniture and gewgaws from someplace trendy. Our realtor brought in someone she hired at her own expense who made suggestions about rearranging furniture, taking some out (they do that a out), and "editing" the books in our bookcases so there were wide spaces to put some of the decorative items we owned. We stashed a lot in the garage, which was OK with her. They also have you remove all family photos and any religious items and fill all the bathrooms with fluffy white towels. As DH said, make it look like "no one ever eats, sleeps or goes to the bathroom here".

It can also include putting fresh mulch in flower beds (to cover the weeds), repainting a front door or light fixtures so a prospective buyer has good first impressions, and a whole laundry list of projects with varying price tags. My advice: go for the cheap and cosmetic.
 
DEC-1982 said:
I was curious about a topic mentioned by another poster, the staging. Is this worth it and how does one decide? Are there specific price points, like house price above $500K or $ 1M etc where it makes more sense? My house costs nothing like that, and I have never considered it.
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As mentioned by athena53, staging has different varieties. At the last house we sold (around the $500k level), we did spend about $2k on staging, although some of that was to the stager for things not really staging.

First, they went through our house and told us what things to take out of the house and store. This was useful although less useful for us than some people because we knew a lot of this from past experience. They rearranged some of our furniture for us.

In our case, we needed to do some painting and other minor upgrades in the house and they helped us find someone to do it and actually went to places like Home Depot and bought window coverings for a couple of rooms and bought light fixtures, etc. This was just a convenience for us as DH and I were still working full-time there. If we hadn't paid them to do this the staging cost would have been left.

They also brought some items to our house. For example, we had a bedroom with no furniture in it and they brought in a bed and some other items for that room. Also, they brought some pictures and other decorative items for the house and a couple of other furniture items. In our case, this was all fairly minimal and was part of the flat fee. If extensive, sometimes people rent the furniture.

On the most minor end of staging, we once had our real estate agent's wife (who was an agent who worked mostly with buyer's) come in and spend a couple of hours going room by room with us through the house. She told us what to put away and what to get instead. Example, on a wall in the bathroom, she told us to put a small picture at a particular place. Or, she said to replace a hanging light fixture, etc. There was no charge to us for doing this and it was incredibly useful. We did everything she suggested and the house sold to the second buyer who saw it on the first day it was listed.
 
I had incredible luck on the last house I sold. It was a small older house in a not so good neighborhood. One that I inherited from my aunt. I did a little painting inside and was in the process of having the carpet ripped out so I could have the wood floors underneath refinished. Can't believe people put carpet on top, but that's another story. Anyway....a family drove by and stopped seeing the carpet laid out in the yard and asked if I was getting it ready to sell. They were looking for something for their daughter to live in while she attended a nearby college. I showed them the house, they made an offer and I took their $1k cash down payment. Closed on the house a week later.

I've sold three houses in my life and have never used a realtor. The other two took 3 months to sell. I'm thinking about buying another house and getting rid of the one I'm in(mom's old house) as it is in the same neighborhood as the last one. Might give it another try on my own for a short time, but plan to let a realtor handle soon there after.
 
MichaelB said:
To update, I interviewed another realtor, and the contrast could not be greater. Made me wonder if they were reading this thread. :) Their guidance: the market to sell is stronger in February / March, especially this house (small 3 bedroom) because the greatest prospect segment is families with school-age children. Staging helps but more important is to have the house in good repair, clean, move-in condition. Numerous improvements suggested by others would be nice to have but the cost would not be completely recovered. Commission is also lower.

One more interview to go.
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Good luck with your realtor interviews. Hope you find the right one.

I have a realtor that I always use, because his strengths are my weaknesses. Namely, he is a polite but hard-bitten, merciless negotiator and I am the ultimate softie when it comes to that. So, I just let him do his thing when it comes to the negotiating phases.

Anyway, my realtor pushed me really hard to get my house on the market fast after my July 1st move. He wanted the house on the market before I even started fixing it up. He said I could do that later. He didn't want to wait to have the house staged, and said it looked bigger empty. I did insist on having it professionally cleaned first, but that was all I got done. He said to just leave it empty and put it on the market, pronto!

I don't know if maybe he had heard that someone in particular was looking for a house like mine, or what. This IS the biggest small town in America, or so they say, and he knows a lot of people. Be that as it may, I got the house on the market in a week and we had a contract in place after just 4 days on the market. I never expected that fast of a sale in this area.

So, that is the approach I like. I picked a realtor that I believe in, and then did whatever he said to do to prepare the house for sale.
 
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Got a realtor. Moved everyone out of the house. Went through one last time to rescue anything that might be needed or have sentimental value to the family. Then cleaned it out - a major undertaking.

We need new carpeting. I called three suppliers, the three bids are all over the place. The range of prices shocks me - from $3.5k - $8.8k. I find carpeting confusing, like buying a mattress. No way to compare specs or judge relative quality of one offer vs another. I'm inclined to go with the lower priced offer. Am I missing something?
 
My opinion is that no matter what carpet you buy, the buyers are going to hate it and tear it out. So if it was me, I'd go see what the cheapest neutral carpet at Home Depot would cost, installed.

But, don't listen to me - - what does your realtor say? He (or she) sells houses in your area all the time and would have a better handle on this than any of us would.
 
Realtors will always suggest you upgrade because the house will sell for more and consequently their commission will be more. They'll also encourage you to use a contractor they know, who pays them a "finders fee" of course.
 
Well, closed on house sale number 2 today. So for 2015 the count is:


1 house in Denver. Sold in 30 days at 95% of list.
1 house in Scottsdale. Sold in 4 days at 98% of list.
1 remodel of new Scottsdale house. Took five months to complete (month ahead of schedule). Wish I could say we were also on budget but we decided to upgrade some finishes and appliances as this will be our last home.


A very trying 8 months getting the houses ready to sell, moving twice, and settling into the new place. Glad we did it though. Now down to one home and I told my other half to hit me over the head with a five iron if I ever say we ought to buy another home!
 
GrayHare said:
Realtors will always suggest you upgrade because the house will sell for more and consequently their commission will be more. They'll also encourage you to use a contractor they know, who pays them a "finders fee" of course.
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Really? Those sound like some awful realtors.

Last summer my realtor told me not to do ANY upgrades or repairs despite the fact that I planned to do some, and instead to get the house on the market right away. I barely was able to get a professional cleaning crew in there before it was on the market and sold.
 
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MichaelB said:
We need new carpeting. I called three suppliers, the three bids are all over the place. The range of prices shocks me - from $3.5k - $8.8k. I find carpeting confusing, like buying a mattress. No way to compare specs or judge relative quality of one offer vs another. I'm inclined to go with the lower priced offer. Am I missing something?
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Nope. Get a cheap carpet in a neutral color. I've done that even with expensive homes and it worked fine. Buyers just want to have something OK in there where they don't have to immediately tear out the carpet. And, you want it to look decent while being shown.
 
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