It’s Not Too Early To “Think Spring”!

If you ask anyone who is thinking about selling their home when they expect to have it on the market, they will inevitably say “in the spring”. Everyone waits until spring to sell their homes.

Spring brings to mind warmer weather, sunshine, flowers and fresh air. The windows can be opened and the cobwebs can be cleared out. In addition to spring cleaning, this seems to be the ideal time to bring in painters and landscapers to spruce up the outside of the house. Yes, spring is a great time to fix up the house and get it ready to sell.

It also makes a lot of sense to sell your house in the spring because of the school year. If you list the house in the spring and it takes three months to sell, plus an “in contract” period of about a month, theoretically you’ll be able to move your kids into their new school district just in time for the first day of school.

Unfortunately, most people wait too long to start this process. If they begin cleaning out the basement and throwing out 25 years of possessions in April, it could be June before they have it all done and have the “For Sale” sign in the front yard. They may have missed a big portion of the spring market.

Last year, we had many clients who intended to put their homes on the market in the spring, but couldn’t seem to get everything done quickly enough to get it in the Multiple Listing Service until May or June. It turned out that there were an unusually large number of buyers in March and April and a low inventory of properties to show them. By the time many of these clients were ready to sell, many of these buyers were gone and it became more difficult to sell their homes.

The message is this: The spring market is now. Begin your cleaning today and take next week end to clear closets and discard clutter. Call the painter and the handyman and get them scheduled before they get really busy. Call us and we will offer suggestions on preparing your home for sale. We will also put together a comparative market analysis to give you an idea of pricing. In a few weeks, you will be ready to act quickly and take advantage of what we hope will be the best spring market yet!