3 “Don’t Do’s” if You’re Selling Your San Carlos Home in 2014 – Part III

January 10, 2014

Now

Part 3 of 3.

Are you selling your San Carlos home in 2014?   If so, congratulations!  You're going to reap the benefit of two consecutive years of unprecedented home price growth here in the Bay Area.   As we discussed last week in the 2013 Year in Review, home prices have appreciated over 30% on average in San Carlos since 2011, and the economic conditions are still in place for another solid year in the real estate market in 2014.   Interest rates are still low, and there are still far more buyers than there are available homes for sale.

But just because this market still strongly favors sellers, it's still critically important to adhere to the basic best practices of selling your home.  In this three-part series on the White Oaks Blog, we'll highlight several common mistakes that sellers should avoid in this frenzied market.   Earlier this week, we discussed not massively under-pricing your home just to attract a boatload of offers

Here's “don't do” #3:

#3:  Don't Wait too Long.

If you were to ask someone when the best time of the year to sell a house is, you'd probably get the answer “In the Spring” about 99% of the time.  Conventional wisdom has pre-programmed us to believe that Spring is best time of the year to put a home on the market, and consequently, more homes are listed and sold during the Spring than during any other time during the year.

But does this truly make Spring the best of the year to sell a home?  Not necessarily.   The best time to sell anything is when you have a combination of a) the greatest number of buyers and b) the least amount of competition.  So while it's probably true that you'll have the greatest number of buyers during the heart of the Spring real estate market, you'll also have the greatest amount of competition — and this year should shape up no differently than any other year.

So when will you find a time when there's peak interest in your home, and virtually no competition?   Ummm, how about right now?

Yes, surprising as it may seem, right now is probably the best time to put your home on the market this entire year.   Why?  Because you have the best combination of those two factors that we talked about — there are only 4 single family homes for sale in the entire City of San Carlos right now, and even though it's still early in the year, buyers are out there in droves.   The holidays are over, and most kids are back in school.  So there are no distractions (vacations, holidays) that are keeping buyers away.

So following conventional wisdom and waiting until everyone else lists their home later in the Spring is Mistake #3 that you should avoid if you're selling your home this year.   I believe there will be a significant wave of inventory hitting the market this Spring as other sellers who have been sitting on the fence look to finally cash out on peaking home prices.  Waiting to list your home until then that just means you're jumping into the market when everyone else is.

But those who decide to do things a little differently and list their home early this year should be rewarded handsomely.

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