Throughout the country, the best time of year to sell a home is usually considered to be early May. Homes that are listed in late spring and early summer not only tend to sell faster, but also at higher prices. Real estate agents usually try to get their listings to go on the market on a Friday or Saturday between April and June, in order to schedule an open day for that same weekend and maximize the number of buyers who come to see it. While June and July are the best times to sell across the country, they may not be the best times of year to sell in your particular market.
Every city is different, and the best times of the year to sell can change over time. Winter is usually the cheapest time of year to buy a home. Salespeople are usually motivated, which automatically translates into an advantage for you. Most people suspend their ads from Thanksgiving through the New Year because they assume that shoppers are scarce.
Sellers who publish at that time usually want to sell as soon as possible. They may even be more willing to add additional perks, such as appliances and window treatments. Returning to the national level, the activity of the real estate market, that is, the number of active advertisements and sales, is cyclical, peaking in late spring and reaching its annual low towards the end of the year. As you can see above, the total volume of pending sales, which is a good indicator of buyer demand, reliably increases in May.
So is putting up for sale in late spring always going to be the best option? Not necessarily. The spring months are often considered to be the best month to sell a home. In fact, across the country, the first two weeks of May are usually the busiest and most lucrative for sellers. Let's look at the personal factors that influence when it comes to determining when you should sell your home.
However, if you are a homeowner and need to sell your home quickly without waiting until the worst month to sell a home has passed, you may not want to make a traditional home sale. If the reason for the sale is relatively flexible, for example, if you are looking for a larger home or a more comfortable neighborhood, it may be worth trying to schedule the sale; however, waiting for the best market conditions to arrive is not worth losing, for example, a great job opportunity or postponing an important goal in life, such as retirement. In other words, it's best to sell when there is a low inventory of homes on the market and a large number of interested buyers looking. Perhaps the most significant drawback of selling a home in the summer is that buyers can request more concessions from sellers, such as asking the seller to pay closing costs.
Since many people tend to head south during the winter, November and December are often considered the best time to sell a home in Florida. However, just as you don't want to sell a home in upstate New York in the dead of winter, it's also best to avoid selling houses in hot locations during the summer months. Don't rule out homes that have languished on the market during the spring and summer sales seasons. A seller's market is the ideal time to sell your home, as you can expect it to sell faster and you're more likely to get several offers and sell it for the full price (or higher).
Selling your home is a stressful process that starts with determining the best time to put it on the market. The Zillow homeowners panel is the fastest way to find out which month is the best to list a home in your area and calculate the selling price of your home now, compared to a first-rate real estate agent who will help you create a sales strategy that best suits your goals, whether it's maximizing the selling price or selling your home quickly. Zillow research also shows that Thursday ads are 1.5% more likely to sell above the asking price, while homes that trade on Saturday or Sunday were 1.3% less likely to sell above the list. Buyers tend to come to open houses in droves when the weather is nice, which is why spring is often such a popular time of year to sell.
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