San Carlos Home Buyer’s Tip: Pay Close Attention on Mondays and Fridays.

November 19, 2010

The Busiest Listing Days.

If you are in the market for a home and you're using an automated email alert system that informs you whenever a new listing hits the market that meets your criteria, congratulations — you are doing the single best thing you can do keep yourself abreast of new opportunities as they come on the market.  (If you're not using an email alert, just shoot me an email and I can set you up.  Can't beat the cost — free — and there's no obligation.)

You may also notice as you ferret through the listing emails during the week that your inbox gets a little more listing activity on two particular days:  Monday and Friday.   It's no accident that you see more listings on those two days than any of the other days during the week, and it's important to understand what drives this phenomenon — and why you should pay particular attention on those two days.

Broker Tour and Open House.

Monday and Friday listings usually coincide with two key event in the home selling process:  The Broker's Tour and the Open House.   Let's take a quick look at how they impact when homes are listed.

  • Broker Tour.   The broker tour is basically the “Open House” for Realtors.  It allows them to conveniently see all of the new listings in a particular area on the same day.  It also allows them to show off their tremendous skill of aimless driving, blocking driveways, and parking 6 feet off the curb — but that's another story altogether.    In San Mateo County, the broker tour is customarily done on Tuesdays.   So for a listing agent to get his/her listing on the Tour Sheet for that particular Tuesday, they have to have their listing loaded into the MLS no later than 11:00 AM on Monday. That's why you often see a spike in new listings on Monday.
  • Open House.    Some homes are held open on both Saturday and Sunday, others on just Sunday.    If the agent missed the deadline for the Tuesday  broker tour but still wants to hold it open that following weekend, they'll often put it on the market on the Friday right before the weekend.  This allows enough time for the listing to propagate to the various real estate websites that people search to find open houses.    The timing is good for maximum visibility too, since buyers are starting to gear up for the weekend of house hunting.  And that's why you see an extra spike of listings on Friday.

So now you know another little tip about how and why homes hit the market when they do.  In a competitive market like we're still seeing in San Carlos, that little extra insight can give you a few days head start on your competition!

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