Offered by Greg Portlock
This will be my 2nd article in my “creating multiple offers” series. Last month I wrote about why it’s important to get your home ready and how to do it even if you don’t have the funds and time. As you all have heard, some homes hitting the market are receiving multiple offers in a short amount of time, driving the final sales price beyond the listing price. The questions is, how can the typical homeowner tap into this potential and maximize the equity they have in their home? This series addresses some of the ways I’ve been able to put my clients in the best position to get the most out of the sale of their home. This month I want to address timing.
“When is the best time to sell to get more than your home is worth?
I want to make sure I’m clear on this point. In a great market like we’ve been in for the last four years, there really hasn’t been a bad time to list a home. However, if the list price is under $300,000, there is an ideal time to sell and it’s between the middle of April and the end of May. Larger homes and high end acreage homes will also sell better in this time frame, but will generally sell better in June. Again, I’m not saying you have to follow this time line to be successful, I’m only saying this is the ideal time. There are little periods of time all throughout the year that are very good as well. Here is my reasoning based on what I’ve seen play out continually almost every year I’ve been doing this. Generally, we live in a very family oriented area, meaning most of us have kids and they are in school. I also know that moving to another area during the school season is disruptive, so we wait until summer to make those kind of changes. With most families selling during the summer months, the inventory of homes is up and buyers have more homes to choose from.
While inventory was down in the beginning of the year, prices were driven up by a highly competitive market. Buyers were actually bringing money to closing to cover the difference between the final sales price and the amount of the bank’s appraisal (particularly for the homes that are worth less than $300,000). As a result, home values are up come this time of year and it gets even better for sellers through May. These are the months that we see the biggest value change in homes. I’ve seen appraisal values go up $30,000 every year over the last four years during these months. It makes sense to me to let values go up for the first four months of the year, and put your home on the market in mid- April and close May or June.
If you just can’t make it to the market before June, don’t despair, you are in one of the hottest markets in the country and almost everyone is selling. Home sales are doing very well for the foreseeable future and timing isn’t the only way to create a bidding war for your home, although it is a point worth bringing up. In my next article I plan on talking about up some really cool ways to make it all come together. Thus, allowing you to get those multiple offers and increasing the value of your home.
My clients already know some of what I’m going to say, but there will be good information for everyone. If you are interested in selling or just talking about it, I’m always ready to share my knowledge and experience from 23 years of Real estate.
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