Why Days on Market Matters to Home Buyers When Selling a House

Get a pre-listing inspection

One of the most important steps of selling a home is getting a pre-listing inspection. A home inspection typically consists of an inspector coming to the home to search for and identify any problems in the physical condition of the house, both inside and out, especially those that present a health and safety risk. According to Greene, home inspections are particularly important to keep in mind when selling an older home.

She says the main areas of focus when it comes to pre-listing inspections include plumbing, insulation, electrical, and essentially any place else within the home that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Afterward, she makes it a point to leave an inspection report on the table of the home for the potential buyer to review with their agent. This can be instrumental for numerous reasons.

“When the buyer with their agent comes in and they look at it, you might also have a list of updates that we’ve already changed,” she says. “The electric, we’ve already upgraded the electrical panel, we’ve changed out the plumbing fixtures. If I’m trying to sell it for top dollar, it’s an older home and needs that pre-listing inspection, I want a list of updates that we’ve made to the home.”

A pre-listing inspection is a great way to get the most accurate understanding of the current state of your home, which will help provide a basis for setting an accurate price and mitigate the risk of your listing sitting on the market.

Pricing your home correctly

Another pivotal aspect of reducing the amount of days a home spends on the market is properly pricing it. Initially overpricing a home can be easy without a realistic idea of what it’s worth. There’s a good amount of research that goes into appropriately pricing a home aside from the appraisal.

Top agents like Greene leverage insights that consist of local market details like the prices that other similar homes in the area are selling for, known as “comps,” and used to perform a comparative market analysis. Maximizing these insights is key for finding the ideal price for a home.

Green notes that you can pretty much expect a home to sit on the market if it’s priced significantly higher than the nearby competition. She says, “I will send my sellers a report showing their comp and the active comp, and if they’re priced the highest, it’s got an encouraging line in there, asking ‘can we please reduce the price?’, and also I’ll update them on the sole comp to show where these homes are getting sold at.”

Prepping your house for sale

When it comes to selling a home, it’s hard to overstate the importance of proper staging. Top real estate agents like Greene understand the role staging plays in helping to reduce the amount of days a home spends on the market, by making it easier for prospective buyers to view your house as their future home and showing off its best qualities. That’s why she goes above and beyond to help sellers stage their homes to perfection.

She says, “If need be, I will call the stager, I will take pictures with my cell phone myself, and email them to the stager and have the stager call the homeowner and the stager can give the homeowner a professional service that is personal and confidential between the two of them.”

While staging is a vital aspect of preparing a home for the market, that’s not the only thing sellers need to keep in mind during the preparation process. Cosmetic repairs and clean-ups that have fallen off the to-do list over the years can be responsible for a home’s days on the market adding up, too. Greene says that this is especially the case in a fast-moving market. “These things need to be done to get the home sold quickly. We want to get top dollar for the home and this is one of the best ways to do it.”

Marketing strategies

Effective marketing techniques are needed to sell products of all kinds. Your home is no exception. Employing the right marketing strategies could be the difference between your home selling as fast as you thought it would, or it sitting on the market for weeks on end. Top agents work tirelessly to leave no stone unturned when it comes to the marketing strategies employed to get homes sold.

Social media and strong photography are effective marketing resources Greene regularly employs in order to get homes sold fast. It’s also important to make sure your home and the areas surrounding it are ready prior to agreeing to photos. She says, “When you do photograph, you want that lawn to be freshly cut.”

Greene leverages social media in her selling efforts, but she doesn’t stop there. “I’m thinking as much online marketing as you can possibly get. Facebook, social media, flyers out to your email (contacts) help to sell a home.” By using multiple channels to spread the word about selling a home, your odds of getting it off the market before days start to add up are likely to improve.

What to do if your house continues to sit on the market

Although it can be discouraging to see other houses in your area sell as the days and weeks pass, it’s not the end. Finding yourself in this situation means that you simply need to make some tweaks. Some things to keep in mind when deciding how to adjust your approach include:

Consider what’s going on in the minds of buyers

Given how fast homes are selling, a home that hasn’t sold after an extended amount of time is likely to raise eyebrows amongst prospective buyers. If you’ve done everything you can to ensure that the home is in tip-top shape, it’s likely worth doing some research to find out more background information about the home. From public records to area crime stats, there could be something beyond your control that’s causing it to sit on the market. Finding out what it is and disclosing it properly could alleviate your woes.

Top Agents Know What Sells Homes

If you’re thinking about selling your house, partnering with a top real estate agent early in the process can be a great move. They have the experience to know how to get you through the process, from prepping your house for sale to getting to closing day.

HomeLight takes just two minutes to match clients with the best real estate agents — who sell houses faster and for more money — who will contact you and guide you through the process. To connect with an agent, simply tell us a little bit about your property and how soon you’re looking to sell.

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Take the following actions

Regardless of how you feel about your home, the real estate market itself is likely to have the final say in how fast it will sell. That’s why it’s important to do everything in your power to make it enticing to home buyers who have options.

The best course of action to take that could help the home sell includes taking the advice of a trusted top performing agent, even if you disagree with it. That advice likely consists of completing repairs, properly taking care of the lawn, and staging the home with the idea of a new family moving in. It could be all it takes to get the home sold. Top-performing agents like Greene have years of experience selling homes, which could be instrumental in helping you get your home off the market.

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