Don't Wait for the Robins To Sell Your Nest

When is the best time of year to put my house on the market?

This is a question that I am asked all the time. The answer to that it is definitely when you as a homeowner are ready to sell. Although the common perception is that the spring season is the best time of year to put your home on the market, I tend to disagree.

The reason is that if you wait until the spring in this current market you may actually miss the spring season altogether. To prepare the marketing and the other vital activites to get your home exposed to potential buyers takes about two weeks. The average number of days it takes to find a buyer is approximately 120 days. Once a seller and buyer come to an agreement on a price, it takes approximately three months to get to the closing table. On average, that means it takes between seven and eight months from the day you decide to list your home to the day that you close on your home.

The length of time it takes to sell a home is probably even longer than I stated due to the fact that many people list their homes for a short period, they expire and then re-list their home either with the same agent or another agent. This very common practice makes the home look new to the market but in my opinion does nothing at all. Buyers today, with the wealth of information available to them on the Internet, are way too saavy to care about days on the market. Some websites actually have changed their DOM (days on market) figures to reflect the true total number of days that a home has been on the market.

In my expert opinion, the best time to list your home is as soon as you are ready to make your move. This may seem overly simplistic, but selling your home does take a great deal of time and effort. Trying to precisely time the sale of your home is about as unrealistic as trying to time any other investment decision. Whenever buyers tell me they want to wait for the spring, I think of Warren Buffet's quote: "If you wait for the robins, the spring will be over."

Buyers and sellers all have different reasons that motivate their actions. Waiting for a specific point in time makes absolutely no sense at all. The biggest problem with listing your home in the spring is that most people feel the same way and the market is always flooded with new listings during that time period. I personally do a lot of my business during the fourth quarter of the year in October, November and December. Many of these buyers are the people who have searched throughout the spring season unsuccessfully and they pounce on new listings that hit the market during the fall.

Alex Rubin
Prudential Douglas Elliman
cell 516.236.3924
fax 509.472.3371
Free Homes Sales In Your Area
www.lbeachrealestate.com