I got a call from a friend the other day who wanted to know when she should put her home on the market. She tried to sell her beautiful 4-bedroom, 2 ½-bath spacious Colonial last year without success in the flooded Lancaster County real estate market.
My friend had heard as I did that winter is not a good time to put one’s home on the market because the traffic isn’t there.
We all were wrong.
There’s a missed opportunity for sellers who wait until the spring to put their homes on the market. Here’s why:
Common knowledge tells people to stick the for sale sign as soon as the spring rains soften the ground. That means, most people will be doing the same thing and your home will have to compete with dozens of similar homes.
That competition just isn’t there in the winter months. That means your home will stand out to the more serious buyers who would brave icy driveways and snow storms to see your home.
Let’s face it. People don’t stop looking for homes just because the holidays come and go. In fact, my business started to pick up last January, even more so this January. And judging by the number of Weichert listings I have seen go under agreement this week alone, it seems as though this year started out with a bang for a lot of agents.
The other thing potential sellers have to think about before delaying the inevitable is that this year is promised to be an even more flooded market because of the “shadow inventory” the talking heads keep warning us about.
Shadow inventory are the homes that banks were foreclosing on when the robo-signing scandal hit. These are homes that have been sort of in limbo until that scandal was resolved.
Economists expect these homes to start flooding markets in the next few months. Whether that happens here in Lancaster, only time will tell.
But don’t wait to find out.
When do you think is a good time to list your home?
