Historically, the busiest time of year for home selling/home buying happens as spring begins. The spring marketplace is generally the busiest time due to several long-standing marketplace variables. First, there are the obvious reasons like the added daylight hours, tax refund checks, and warmer weather. However, families have discovered that spring is an ideal time to buy or sell a home as they then have ample time to get settled before the next school year begins.
Timing Insights for Home Sellers
June holds the distinction as the peak time of year for home sellers.
If you are looking to sell your home, it is important to recognize that often, the listing’s largest competition is an online surge of new listings. This causes your listed home to free fall within the browser’s search results. From a national perspective, the end of February into March, is the timeframe when the largest surge of new listings occurs. As such, competition is most fierce for sellers at this time.
More specifically, and especially during a seller’s market, home sellers are encouraged to list their home on Thursday. This placement of the new listing provides an opportunity for buyers to view the home over the next weekend – as a brand-new offering. If the number of days it takes to sell a home is reduced, this improves a seller’s chance of receiving a full price offer.
Timing Insights for Home Buyers
As they exist on opposite sides of a real estate transaction with opposing objectives, a buyer’s preferred timing differs from a seller.
As such, it should not be surprising to learn that most effective month to remit an offer on the purchase of a house is January. There is less competition because there are less buyers during the frigid weather of winter and the sun sets before 5 PM. Sellers are likely to be more motivated to negotiate in January as they have just received credit card statements with large balances from holiday shopping.
The most effective day of the month to remit an offer to purchase is the first Tuesday of the month. This too has an emotional basis because the seller just paid the monthly mortgage payment and the seller begins to worry they won’t receive any offers from the weekend showings.
Use this insight to improve your chances of buying or selling, but never overlook your personal needs.
