How Long Does It take to sell a House

Q. How long does it take to sell a house ?

A. The real estate market is an everchanging and volatile field, with no guarantees. The key elements that govern this field are never constant. It’s the dynamic nature of this field that makes it so unpredictable.

In real estate, there is a transaction between a buyer and seller. For a buyer, there’s an array of choices and the wait is for the click, for a buyer to settle on the perfect home. Delays or backlogs are either related to finances or not finding something suitable, but both can be resolved by looking at a different array of properties. The options never stop flowing for a buyer. But in the case of a seller, the situation is quite different. 

The process of selling a house or property is quite a complex concept. It is the culmination of many elements including location, valuation, market stance, buyers and the perfect timing. The process cannot be rushed or induced into fast forward just by the will of a broker or by the wish of the seller.

It’s the coming together of these elements that form the selling process. The duration between putting your house onto the market and it gets sold off to a buyer is all dependent on how the selling process unfolds and how the elements in this process interact with one another.   

To understand how long does it take sell a house, let’s first understand the process of selling.

In the simplest terms, selling involves a buyer, seller and in many cases related to real estate, a mediator better known as a broker/realtor. This entire process can be split into two, the preparation process and the dealing stage.  

The preparation process mainly involves the seller and the realtor. It includes all steps before the inflow of concrete deals, it is everything involved in preparing for the final transaction.  The second stage, or rather the dealing stage starts with an offer made by a buyer. Everything post-offer comes in this stage.

The more time-consuming part of the selling process is the preparation stage and here is where a seller can have a certain amount of influence on how long the process will last. Though there is some amount of control you have in speeding up processes in the dealing stage as well, it mainly involves legalities, down-payments, drawing contracts etc., the time duration of which is out of your control.

To bring a change in the duration of any step you first need to understand what it entails.

Here are the important steps involved in the preparation process for selling: 

1. Choosing an agent: The first step is to choose a listing agent. Do not rush this process, interview, and scan at least four to five agents before selecting one. Make sure to find out all essential details such as how long your house will be listed and the previous track record of the agency.

2. Home valuation: Doing the property valuation of your house is one of the most important steps of the process. It is the step before the actual transaction between a buyer and seller. It is a very essential element that largely affects the sale of your property.

Be sure to go through all the available methods of calculating the value of your house. These may include broker valuation methods or online valuation tools, evaluate all methods available to you and choose wisely.

3. Staging & Repairs: This step is considered optional by some sellers. People sometimes prefer not to stage their homes before a sale due them inhabiting it at the same time.  While staging is an important step, it can be forgone if the condition of your house is not too bad. But repairs are a must.

Make all necessary adjustments on your doors, in your plumbing, wiring etc because these are the amenities people are on the lookout for.

4. Open House & Marketing: Show your property to the world, and it will be sold. Don’t hesitate in marketing your property. Essential if you have a realtor on board the marketing aspect is taken care of, but even so you can market within your social circles, word of mouth goes a long way in the selling process.

When it comes to hosting an open house, once again if you have a realtor it is taken care of. An open house is basically a real estate event of sorts wherein you keep your doors open for any potential customer who wants to make a property purchase.

There are planned open houses but some sellers even allow people in for a showing without an appointment. This is purely your decision.

5. Offers, offers, offers: Once your property is out there, the waiting game begins. Depending on how well you and the realtor are able to execute the previous stages, and how their effect takes off in the market, offers will come flowing in. With the offer comes the offer value and from there on negotiations begin.

This is the last step of the preparation process. Keep in mind, even if you are closing in on a certain offer, do not stop the inflow of offers until the deal is properly sealed and finalized.

In almost all cases, a realtor is able to come up with a rough estimate of how long does it take to sell a house 

They do this after analysing all the decisions and choices you make at every step from the very beginning. Sometimes even the realtor is the reason for the slow sale of your house, thus it is important to make wise choices while selecting the person who will deal with your property sale. Though it's not a calculated deduction, sometimes its pure luck that brings a buyer to a seller.

Essentially there is no hard and fast rule or formula through which you can determine how long it takes to sell a specific property. But as discussed above, there are factors that contribute to it.

Though there is a multitude of internal and external factors, here are some factors on which we have an influence and here’s how you can boost your selling process: 

Competitive Pricing

1. What is it you sell at?

The price at which you sell your property is the most important element in the selling mix. The process of fixing a price begins at the valuation of your property, post which you determine a price depending on how much percentage profit you want to make added to the condition of the house and the urgency to sell.

This is a very crucial decision that can decide the length of your selling process. The higher the price the longer the time. If a property is priced right, it will sell. Lower rates sell quicker, overpriced properties have an undetermined time limit.

It’s best to set your price just a tad bit lower than the other houses in the market or create other attractive offers to entice customers into making offers. Once you have offers flowing, competition between buyers raises the prices automatically.

2.  Location is everything.

The geographical area of your property plays an important role in the sale. Make sure to mention any and all amenities available in your locality while marketing your house.  Some important amenities include hospitals, schools, and playgrounds. Highlight to your buyer the connectivity of your area to highways, transport facilities, airports etc.

Always remember, its not only the house that sells, it’s the lifestyle. A person is interested in everything that a house has to offer, including its neighbourhood.

3. How it looks is how it is.

Though people sometimes refrain from staging their house for a sale, it’s like they say, the first impression is the last impression. Staging your house and decorating removes the troubles of a potential buyer to imagine how the house will like their home.

Visuals are a very powerful tool and staging helps to play that to its best potential. Create a story for your customer and make them wish they are the characters that play in it!

It's undeterminable to give an Average time to sell a house with market conditions and competitors' offers constantly fluctuating. But if you use the aspects that you are in control of and go forward with the selling process, it helps decrease the timeline.

Keep an eye out for opportunities to market your property and never lose hope, every house will find its owner!

Want to have a chat about the property or about your buying or selling needs?

Book an appointment today  and let me know how I can help you.

Post a Comment