Sellers used to hate the thought of listing their home, knowing it would take weeks or months to sell, having to keep it show ready, and packing up the kids and pets at a moment’s notice for a showing, but those days are gone.
With our record low inventory, prices continuing to increase month over month, and so few homes for buyers to choose from, homes are flying off the shelves. If a home isn’t sold within the first couple of days of being on the market, we wonder why.
Of course, each home is different and there are still overpriced or are hard homes to sell, but for those homes at the low to mid-price points, we are seeing multiple offers and bidding wars as soon as they hit the market. Even high-end homes are selling at not only record prices but in record time.
There are different strategies in this type of market to achieve not just the highest price but the highest and best offer. Sellers have to be careful not to over price their home in this market which is very tempting to do when prices keep going up. The last thing you want to do is overprice your home and then have it sitting on the market.
The funny thing is, we used to question about a home sitting on the market after a couple of months, now it’s a couple of weeks or even days. If a home doesn’t sell right away and has been on the market for a week or two, we wonder what’s wrong with it.
Last month, I had a buyer who was working with another agent call me directly. They had put in ten offers, all above the list price, and kept getting rejected. They were getting so frustrated, and with two young children, were worried they would never be able to buy a home in this market.
They called me with two homes they would like to look at and they fell in love with the first one they saw. It was a Tuesday, and the home was listed the Saturday before but had no offers. It was a great house, and perfect for my buyers, so we were shocked they had no offers.
Because it had already been on the market for three days — I know that sounds crazy to think three days is a long time with no offers — I was able to negotiate on the price and we got it for $10,000 under the list price. My buyers were so happy after putting in so many offers above asking to be getting the first one we looked at and under list price.
Pricing the home where it needs to be and marketing it to sell right away is key in today’s market. The seller has much more negotiating room when there are multiple offers verses just one offer and if it sits on the market, buyers are more likely to offer under list price.
When to List Your Home
With homes selling so quickly, you need to make sure you are ready to move in 30 days, which is the typical time frame to close. For my clients, when they are ready to list their home, we choose a weekend when they can be out of town or gone all day. That way we can have an open house and back-to-back showings all weekend without disturbing them. All offers received over the weekend are presented on Monday and it is all done in one weekend.
Even with homes selling so quickly, you still want to do everything you can to sell for top price. While you may not need to do repairs and upgrades in this seller’s market, taking the time to stage your home and having it show ready will give the buyers the best first impression.
While it’s great for sellers that homes are selling so quickly, it does come with its own set of challenges. With multiple offers and buyers getting creative with what they offer, it has never been more important to analyze all the offers to ensure you are accepting not just the highest but the best offer. Multiple offers also give the seller a lot more room for negotiations to make the offer even better and more advantageous for them.
Another change we are seeing more of in this market is buyers cancelling within the first ten days and homes coming back on the market. Part of the reason for this is buyers are jumping in with both feet and throwing everything into their offer to get it accepted. Then when they do finally get an offer accepted, they have buyer’s remorse. Maybe it’s not quite the right house for them after all or they offered more than they are really comfortable with.
With the added negotiations and analyzing of multiple offers to make sure you accept the right one, having an experienced Realtor to guide you through this process is so important.
How Much is My Home Worth?
When you are thinking about selling your home the first thing you want to know is how much your home is worth. Chances are you will jump on internet sites such as Realtor.com or Zillow.com but these sites use their own algorithms and can give you very different estimates. I just looked up a new listing and Realtor.com was $43,000 higher than Zillow.com
Not only are the values so different on these sights but they are usually way off from where the home value really is. It used to be they were over valuing homes, however in today’s market I am seeing more homes undervalued so don’t give too much credit to the value on these sites.
If you do want to go online to get a quick value, you can get an accurate home estimate at InstantHomeValueAZ.com,
which takes you to my website, and I will personally run the report for you. However, the only way to get the true market value of your home is to schedule an appointment for a free home valuation.
If you are thinking of selling and would like more information on your home value, where the market is today, and how to sell in one weekend, please call, text, or email me anytime to make an appointment.
Lorraine is a Multi-Million Dollar producing agent, has been a full-time Realtor for over 13 years, is an Associate Broker of KOR Properties, a Certified Negotiation Specialist, and is on the Professional Standards Board. You can reach Lorraine at (602) 571-6799.