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hayden2_gw

Best time to List a House

hayden2
9 years ago

Is there a best time to list a house for sale?

We have been planning to list our house the last week of Feb / first week of March, depending on how much snow is on the ground (we're in the northeast).

We avoided the fall since a lot of people said it was a slow time, and it was pretty dead around here. Few people were looking, few people were selling. Now I don't know where the market might be going.

Some realtors are saying list early in the season when there is less competition. Others say list later in the season so we can see if prices are moving up or down. Then we can catch the wave or sit tight.

I'd be interested in your thoughts out there.

Comments (49)

  • OttawaGardener
    9 years ago

    If you're ready to list, why wait? All it takes is one buyer...

  • hayden2
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Why wait? Well, because I want to maximize return. It's not complicated. I have the ability to time the listing, so I want to know others' thoughts about whether we should do so.

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    IMO, You answered your own question in your post.
    You say in the winter there are less buyers, but also less sellers, than compared to the Summer. If this is true, and it is, then the ratio of buyers to sellers is still about the same all throughout the year.
    List your home when it makes sense to you, no matter what the season is.

  • threepinktrees
    9 years ago

    I understand your problem. We sold our house last spring. We priced it higher than the realtors suggested --significantly higher. We got what we wanted because the prices ended up being a lot higher than the year before, which no one could have know ahead of time. If that happens in your area this year, waiting until May or June would make sense.

    However, there's no way to know. It could be that in comparison with your last real estate 'busy season' prices will be lower this year.

    Since you can't know ahead of time, if you've gotten a market analysis and are happy with the proposed price, I would list early to give yourself the biggest market of buyers for the upcoming season and not stress about whether it will turn out that values are up or down from last year.

  • Xclusive
    9 years ago

    Right Now! :)

    We were faced with similar issue when we were selling our house. We started in the Spring/Summer and debated if we were going to take it off the market during the winter months. Yes as you stated its less traffic, but its also less houses on the market and as it has been stated: all it takes is one person to sell your home!

    Good luck!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Our Home Sell

  • Linda
    9 years ago

    It really depends on where you are, what your situation is and what your market is like. I am in the NE also, and I usually advise my sellers to wait until mid February once November comes. Typically, there are not many lookers over the holidays and the house becomes stale by the spring market. Here, the beginning of the spring market typically begins mid February. Waiting until May or June and you've missed the boat. (when closings take 2 to 3 months to happen, waiting until june to get on the market causes you to miss the whole, gotta get in before school starts crowd). That being said, since winter got off to a slow start this year, there are still many buyers out there and houses are selling. I actually considered calling the clients that are going to list in Feb to discuss getting them on the market now but then of course, here comes the cold and snow and things seem to be slowing down again.

    I dont agree with listing late in the season to see if prices are moving up or down. It in no way will change your bottom line by anything significant. It takes more than a few months for values to change that much.

  • hayden2
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Threepinktrees, Xclusive and linda117, thank you so much for your very helpful comments. I appreciate it.

  • hollynla
    9 years ago

    I had been wondering the same thing (when to list). We will be listing ours in March. I live in the deep south and while we don't have snow, everything is just dead looking, it's muddy, and dull. I want the house to show with some greenery and flowers and the potential buyers can walk the property (acreage). I'm using the time right now to perfect everything I can but I've actually been working on that for about 6 months.

  • hayden2
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I feel your pain, hollynla. We took pictures last summer when our yard looked its best, and we'll ask a realtor to have them available for prospective buyers. Maybe if you have some pictures like that, would that help?

  • hollynla
    9 years ago

    I don't have any pictures but I have a plan for the week prior to put it on the market, like pressure washing and planting to spruce it up outside. I've also been carefully watching the market in our area to see the trends and things look slow, which I expect for most places being the holiday season just ended.

  • function_first
    9 years ago

    I had always heard that you should plan on listing shortly after the Superbowl, after our experience selling last year, I think thatâÂÂs about right. We listed our house on St. PatrickâÂÂs Day and had accepted an offer (with multiple offers) in 3 days. It seemed like we caught the tail end of the spring market activity because it slowed down very shortly after that -- and there was still a foot of snow on the ground when we were showing our house. So weather and beautiful yards donâÂÂt make people hunt for houses, the school calendar does -- people want to close on their houses in May or June. All this is to say that if it were me, IâÂÂd aim to have it listed soon.

    This post was edited by Function_First on Thu, Jan 8, 15 at 12:54

  • zorroslw1
    9 years ago

    We will be putting our house on the market the end of February. Last Summer I took pictures of the house and the back yard at its peek. We have a beautiful, large back yard surrounded by a 4 ft white picket fence, flowers, bushes, grasses, trees etc. I plan to have them layed out on a table so prospective buyers can see it at its best.
    Also, I read an article from a realtor saying that houses that are put up for sale on a Friday tend to sell faster than those that are listed on any other day. They said there is no rhyme or reason, but statics show it to be true. Go figure.

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    I bet there is no statistical significant difference that supports that homes listed on a Friday sell faster.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    9 years ago

    Immediately, IMHO.

    This from someone who kept their house off the market because no one would buy a 6-10BR house without kids and no one would do that in the middle of the school year.

    Our buyer? A childless couple who made the offer on Dec 23rd.

  • sylviatexas1
    9 years ago

    A Realtor showed my listing on Christmas Day.

    His clients bought the house.

  • Linda
    9 years ago

    I agree with nc realestate guy on the Friday list date. Actually, the statistics are clear that the majority of people are searching the internet between 3 and 4 pm on Thursdays. Lol

  • jill302
    9 years ago

    We are listing our house the first week of March. Talked to a friend who has worked escrow for years and she said it starts getting really busy for them about Easter, so she suggested that I list about a month ahead of that so we are ready and available when the traffic starts picking up. Wanted an honest opinion from someone who has nothing financial to gain from my sale.

    Of course, the realtors want to get you under contract so there is no risk of you going with someone else, so they will give you all the reasons for listing right away, I want maximum exposure. Having you house for sale is stressful, better to get the best turnout for the stress.

  • weedyacres
    9 years ago

    Those who are trying to time the market for its peak are assuming that real estate is all a numbers game. That your house if more likely to sell if it lists when the most people are looking. Kind of like saying if you're single, it's best to live in a big city where there are more eligible mates.

    But in real estate, like in dating, it only takes one. Houses are matches between a buyer's needs and the home's characteristics. There might be more buyers out in the spring, but that doesn't guarantee that they'll be the ones for whom your house is a good match. And meanwhile, by waiting to list, your perfect buyer might have gone elsewhere.

    People meet and get married in small towns as well as big cities. And people buy houses all year round. As soon as you're ready to sell, I vote list. Put yourself out there.

    Or maybe this twist on the dating/real estate metaphor: if you're a bar-hopper, you could wait until 11 pm, when the bar is the fullest. Or you could show up at 9 pm and be there for every one that passes through all night. That's maximum exposure, not the focused flash-in-the-pan time when your competition is heaviest. :-)

  • sylviatexas1
    9 years ago

    Think about this:

    Do department stores & grocery stores hide merchandise in the back room?

    No, they put *everything* on the shelves;
    you can't sell it if it isn't out there.

  • greg_2010
    9 years ago

    Add my vote to the "whenever you are ready to sell" crowd.

    I could see not listing it over the Christmas holidays, but only because it would be inconvenient to me to have my home "show-ready" during that time, not because the pool of buyers is smaller.

    Unless you are in an area where a bidding war is likely to happen, there is no advantage to waiting. As many people have stated, it only takes one buyer to sell your house. Set a reasonable price for your market and don't accept less than what you want.

    I liked Weedy's metaphor.

    This post was edited by greg_2010 on Thu, Jan 15, 15 at 15:17

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    I agree with the last couple of posts. Unless you have some significant reason for listing at a certain time, then just list it when you are emotionally, and physically (financially) ready to list.
    Going back to the agent that wrote a story that concluded that homes listed on a Fri sold faster than homes listed on other days... So, if a home sells in 30 days when the average days on the market is 60 days, and the home was listed on a Fri, then these two facts are correlated? I think not. What if it was a fact that that home had purple siding? Does it mean that homes listed on a Fri. with purple siding sell faster than homes listed on a Th. with tan siding don't sell as fast as the subject home? No, of course not. Probably, what is going on here is that most homes are listed on Fridays to start with. So to equalize this statistical fact, one would have to perform a T - Test to determine if there really is a "statistical significant difference" to really determine if homes that are listed on a Fri. sell faster than homes listed on any other day of the week.

  • hayden2
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    We have decided to list at the end of February. We need several weeks to get the house ready. I just finished painting the bathroom last night. We just chose a listing agent, and now I'm slavishly doing everything to the house she told me to.

    She's the professional and I plan to listen to what she suggests with regard to our house. We've lived in this house 30 years, and I can't see it as a "property" since it's our home. So if she says my beloved break front with my even more beloved crystal collection has to go, then go it will !

    She says that given our location, she recommends we not list before the end of February anyway since she says people don't tend to slog through the snow to look at houses. She made an interesting commemt also. She said that yes, it only takes one buyer, but she said that so few people around here look in Jan/early Feb, we should weigh the chance of that one buyer in a time few people are looking, vs the house getting stale on the market and clicking up days on market. A slightly different take. However, she could have just been validating the fact that I can't get all the changes done before that anyway!

    But in any case we have decided to list as soon as we can and not wait.

    Thanks to everyone for your opinions and commemts, which were universally helpful.

    Thank you for all your

  • weedyacres
    9 years ago

    I think the "stale listing" argument can be overdone as well. I don't choose not to see a house because it's been on the market a long time. And if it ends up being "the one" the "staleness" doesn't taint my decision to buy it. Perhaps if it's really old I think I can get a better deal on it, but there's no guarantee the seller would take a lowball.

    If I'm back in the proverbial bar, as a late arrival, and see a cute guy, I wouldn't assume just because he's not paired up yet that he's damaged goods. I'd be glad that no one else snatched him up. :-)

    In any case, I'm not trying to belabor the OP's decision. I'm glad you've got things figured out and you're moving forward.

  • hayden2
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Weedy, all analogies are problematic, but the problem with the cute guy at the bar is this: if I told you the cute guy has been sitting at the bar for 20 minutes, he looks pretty good, right? Now what if I tell you he's been there for 9 hours? Does he look just as good? :)

  • sylviatexas1
    9 years ago

    ' doing everything to the house she told me to'

    I love & adore sellers like you!

    I've only had one....
    but she/they took my at-that-time 3-page list of suggestions & did every single thing on the list before they called me to put the house on the market.

    It sold that week-end.

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    Hayden, if someone had been in a bar for 9 hours scoping out the guy who had been there for that 9 hours, then not only would he look really good, but so would every other dude in the place.
    I have not had one buyer in 12 years tell me not to show them one of the homes they chose to see, after they found out it had been on the market longer than the average days on the market.
    I have had them ask me to find out why it may have been on the market for that long...

  • loribarnaby
    9 years ago

    Holidays and winter are best times for selling a house. Sellers believe that itâÂÂs more conventional to list for the spring âÂÂsellingâ season and then again after the summer. If you go the conventional route, you will see more competition. If you can sell âÂÂoff seasonâ you might fare better because there are still serious buyers, but less homes for sale.

  • weedyacres
    9 years ago

    Actually, the main problem with my analogy is that I don't drink. But if I did, NC's likely right, that I wouldn't be too picky after 9 hours. :-)

    My point, though, was that time on market is irrelevant to whether I'll like the house. Choosing a house, like choosing a relationship, is personal. The reasons that made the house or the guy wrong for someone else could be the reasons that make it right for me.

    So no, the fact that the guy has been sitting there for 9 hours doesn't make me any less attracted to him than knowing he got there 20 minutes ago.

    Ok, back on topic. Sorry for pulling it off yet again. The analogy just seemed to apt....

    Good luck with the rest of your preparations and your sale!

  • pooks1976
    9 years ago

    For the average house I don't think it matters. It seems the advice is that winter and the holidays are bad times to list, but I just watched everything that I had bookmarked that was still listed during that period go under contract. This was probably partially due to the interest rate decrease, but there were also few (almost no) new listing, so the competition was minimal.

    We (buyers) went under contract on 10/31, because our lease is up in February and listing had really dried up by mid Oct. We have a school age child, but are moving within the same school district so the mid school year move will have little impact on her.

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    " It seems the advice is that winter and the holidays are bad times to list, but I just watched everything that I had bookmarked that was still listed during that period go under contract"...
    Bingo!... List your home when you are ready to list your home. Don't turn it into rocket science when it is not.

  • gnpa
    9 years ago

    We listed our home in Nov/14. We were going to wait until the Spring of 2015, but the RE suggested we do it in November when there was virtually no inventory.

    The thinking was, that because we were the only choice in a desirable area, we could sell the house as is.

    The house sold in a few days (with multiple offers) and we ended up with 40K more than we had thought we could get

    It all depends on the area you're in, but as someone says, it only takes one buyer.

  • zippity1
    9 years ago

    our new home was completed Sept 20, we knew moving was imminent, so the 12th we contacted a local realtor and she came bye for a visit, she left us with a short list of things to do (mostly clutter) which we commenced to work on the following day she scheduled a return visit to hang a coming soon sign in the front yard, the following day, a guy came by and asked if he could take a look at the house, which we allowed him to do, 6:30 am the following morning, we received an email from our realtor asking to meet with us at 9 the gentleman was making a full price offer on our house and his wife had never seen it (she viewed it that afternoon) they asked us when we wanted to move and things went on from there....
    the house was in northwest houston, we had a million neighbors in the oilfield business, meaning, the market is going to go down significantly, i saw on the news last night where a 2500 bed psychiatric facility for the most stringently guarded folks is being built less than 4 blocks from that house
    this just goes to show that you can rarely depend on the predicted best time to list....

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    Hopefully Houston is a much more diverse city than it was back in the 80's, when it went bust big time. I spent 5 years outside of Houston, in Richmond, near Sugar Land. We had a good time, and I went down there to rent and ended up purchasing my first home... with a pool and all!
    Glad to hear you got sold before the market goes down.
    Let's here more of these "off market" sales.

  • weedyacres
    9 years ago

    We bought Weedy Acres in a January. A job transfer dictated the timing of our relocation. All those that were waiting until spring to list their homes missed out on a potential sale to us. :-)

  • DYH
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My realtor wants me to list now, but in the last two weeks, we've had snow and ice and snow is falling right now. I want to wait until April because I have a flower garden that is still sleeping, my waterfall is turned off and the swimming pool is covered (and covered with snow). The first of April, the garden will pop and the water feature will be lovely. I realize I could be missing a buyer, but in selling homes in the past, it seemed like the first few weeks were high traffic. Also, it's too cold to touch-up paint the exterior trim. I managed to get the exterior power washed before the snow.

  • jn3344
    9 years ago

    Its up to you. I am listing next week. Yes, it is blasted cold here with snow still on the ground (MN). The initial target was this week but its hard to get stuff done in minus degree temps. My realtor has a sense of urgency about it as he thinks we are running a bit late. I can't imagine a week makes that much difference but we will see.

    I envy the people who can just throw a couple cups in the dishwasher and then list their home for sale later that morning. I cant believe the amount of work it's taken to get to this point.

    Good luck!

  • DYH
    9 years ago

    Even though my house isn't yet listed, when my realtor has a qualified buyer (usually from out-of-state) looking for a large house on acreage, she has brought them here to see my house. On the TV, I had a slideshow of the gardens playing while they were here. She thought that was a great way to show what the house looks like with the gardens in bloom.

  • yellowstone2
    9 years ago

    OP here. We listed last week. So far we have 8 showings with 3 more scheduled. No offers yet. I've got fingers crossed, but I'm worried about no offers.

  • yellowstone2
    9 years ago

    I should clarify: I am the OP, but with a different name because the transition to houzz was a debacle. Houzz ate my history and wouldn't let me use my old name.

  • handmethathammer
    9 years ago

    Good luck! I think this is a good time. I notice a lot of things on the market at this time, and a lot of buyers. School schedules is an issue. People want to buy in spring, move in summer and be ready for fall.

    We bought our last house in March.

  • yellowstone2
    9 years ago

    So we listed the last week of Feb, and are still sitting on the market. We listed at the lower number of the range our agent suggested. We got really worried after about 50 couples saw our house. Feedback is nothing we can deal with (bedrooms too small, Master bath too small, etc ). We got one written offer at list that was withdrawn the very next day. Then we got another offer for lower than list, but it also died during attorney review. Don't know why, but we think they just found other houses they liked better. These offers might have indicated the price was right, but with 50 viewers and no offer that lasted more than 36 hours, we got concerned.

    So after being on the market 3 weeks, we dropped the price 3% into the lower price point. We expected to see a different group of buyers, but in fact we got very few viewers, maybe 6 or 7 couples.

    We are going to sit tight for a while at the new price point.

    Selling a house is the pits

  • hollynla
    9 years ago

    Yellowstone2, when you say 50 couples saw your house, do you actually mean you had 50 showings!?


  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    50 showings and no offers is a good sign that you are overpriced... probably by more than 3%.

  • yellowstone2
    9 years ago

    Yes, I mean we had 50 showings (but this includes sign-ins at the public open house, and we don't know how many were real buyers vs lookers and neighbors).

    Ncrealestateguy guy, I might have thought that we were out of the price range, but the two houses next to our next door neighbor sold for $62,000 and $75,000 more than our original price about 4-5 months ago. Our agent brought in a group of agents before we went on the market, and they all recommended prices that were $10-15,000 higher than our first list price.. And that was before we brought in the stager so the house looks even better now. We are now $75-85,000 less than recent sold comps.

    We don't get it. The agent says she doesn't get it, and the office head, who participated in the pricing and thought we were going in low, doesn't get it. The other thing that's troublesome is that the average DOM just jumped from 30 to 70 days, so maybe it's not just us

    We'll keep it on the market for a while, then we may just pull it and sell next year. It's frustrating.

  • ncrealestateguy
    9 years ago

    More than likely, next year will see quite a bit higher interest rates, which will mean less qualified buyers all around.

    If you are priced correctly, then it is just a matter of patience.

    BTW, the days on the market stat is not really a very helpful #. You need to find out what the absorption rate is for your neighborhood / area. Then you can build a marketing plan around that.

  • yellowstone2
    9 years ago

    Thanks for your input. Could you explain what you mean by "absorption rate"?

  • jn3344
    9 years ago

    Since January, 11 homes in my immediate area listed, most of them listed towards the end of Feb. including mine. All are now showing as either pending or closed except one, which was the most expensive one at about 25% higher than the average of the others.

    There was a decent amount of activity. I think you also need some good luck. We had unseasonably mild weather for a couple weeks there and the sun was out and people were looking. Now it is all gray and sloppy wet.

    Even though we had a lot of activity people are still looking for value. I think your home needs to show people immediately what the value proposition is.

    Our agent was very experienced. He says "people are looking for a house that looks just like everyone else's house. They are not looking for 'unique.' They want something like their friends have." Since ours is more modern than most people are looking for we had to get a little lucky, which we did. But we also offered clean, newly updated, and more square footage than you would find on other homes for the money.

    Good luck!

  • hollynla
    9 years ago

    Yellowstone, that's great news. Be sure to keep us updated.

    I'm 8 days on the market and our very first showing which was last Saturday, may be submitting an offer per their agent. They are debating between ours and one other. Luckily, I've been so busy, it's been easy to be patient.