Selling Your Home:
Should I List In Summer Or Winter?

Contrary To "Popular Wisdom", Listing In Winter Might Bring You A Better Price!

Everyone knows that if you want to sell your home quickly and for the best price, you need to list in Spring with an eye to selling then or just as Summer begins, right? I mean, this is what we've been told forever, so it must be true ... Right?

Well ... maybe not so much. Apparently there's a lot of research that tells us that you might actually have a better chance at a higher priced sale in the winter! It's contrary to what "common knowledge" tells us, that's for sure, but think about it for a moment. If everyone "knows" that it's harder to sell a home in winter what happens? Well, less people list their homes. And what does that mean? It means if you do list your home in winter, you have less competition. And, less competition can mean a faster, more profitable sale ... if the Buyers are active.

Here's a really comprehensive article by Kenneth R. Harney from the Los Angeles Times:

Listing in winter may yield higher home price | Los Angeles Times

http://latimes.com April 20, 2014 5:00 AM

A study of 1.1 million home listings between 2011 and 2013 in 19 major markets by the national realty brokerage firm Redfin found that, contrary to popular impressions, houses put on the market in winter — defined as Dec. 21 through March 21 — had a 9-percentage-point greater probability of selling within 180 days and at a smaller discount to the initial list price than houses put on the market during the spring months (March 22 to June 21) ...

Read More At: http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-harney-20140420,0,7783915.story

How To Be Absolutely Certain Your Home Won't Sell

Of course, in all this talk about seasonal influences and best times versus worst times, it's possible to lose track of a couple of very important ideas. The first is that getting the absolute best price possible in the absolute least time on the market will probably not be your only concern when you sell your home. Many things factor in, such as school schedules, work transfers ... a thousand different things need to be weighed against each other and a balance reached. The second thing to keep in mind if you are considering selling, is that the only way to guarantee your home will not sell ... is to keep it off the market. If you've decided you want to sell ... and you could do it now or 5 months from now ... waiting those 5 months because of some statistical speculation you've read is usually not the wisest move. While you're waiting for that statistically "superior" time, you could be passing up qualified buyers prepared to purchase your home. Get it on the market. That way you have some reality to deal with ... and not just speculation. If you'd like to discuss the possibility of listing your home for sale in the near future, give us a call. My Team and I would be pleased to assist you in any way we can.