Selling Your Home

TIMING IS CRITICAL

When selling your home, timing is by far the most important consideration.  A number of judgments will be made about your property from prospective buyers based on your timing so here are a few key factors to consider:

• Typically the best time to sell your home is in the spring, followed by the fall. Most people want to move in between school years and when tax refunds are due. In Scottsdale, springtime is also when you have the largest potential group of buyers due largely to the snowbirds and Canadians who “winter” in the valley and return home typically before the start of summer. Spring is also when the largest tourist events take place in Scottsdale as well.
• It is typically best to put a house on the market on a Thursday so it can be shown that coming weekend. Weekends are when the highest levels of housing activity takes place and by having your market listed for the shortest period of time, you can help avoid longer listing times when buyers start to wonder what may be wrong with the house and why it hasn’t sold yet.

PRICING MUST BE RIGHT

Most homes fail to sell in a timely manner because they are simply not priced correctly when they go to market. There are a number of ways you can help avoid this including:

• Working with a broker that is honest, experienced, and more interested in selling your home in a timely manner than simply getting your listing at any price.
• Making sure your house is “priced to sell” during the first 2 weeks it goes to market. This is the most critical sales window where the most serious buyers will likely be the least concerned about the age of your listing. The longer your listing stays on the market, the more cautious potential buyers can become and you may lose negotiating power as a result.
• Working with an agent that will thoroughly research the local market, sales histories, market trends and help you best position your listing for immediate success.

TIMING THE MARKET

The real estate market fluctuates like most markets and can have it highs and lows. Beyond the typically seasonal considerations that take place with home selling in Arizona, there are also market considerations to consider as well. These include:

• Is the current timing considered a Buyers or a Sellers market?
• Are mortgage interest rates high or low? Are they rising or falling?
• How are home sells (your competition) performing in your local area? How much inventory is currently on the market and for how long on average?