Buyer’s Tip: Pay Special Attention on Fridays.

TGIF!

This home buyers tip is especially pertinent, because today is Friday, and because the San Carlos real estate market is so devoid of listings that it's important to gain any advantage that you can in such a competitive market.

Most home buyers today utilize some sort of app that alerts them the moment a home hits the market in their desired area. If you use one of these apps, you have probably noticed that you get a LOT more alerts on a Friday than any other day of the week. That's not by accident

Before the days of COVID, listing agents had to make a decision on when to list their property in order to garner the highest visibility. That decision revolved around Broker Tour and Open House — in San Mateo County, Broker Tour is on Tuesday and of course open houses generally occur on Saturday or Sunday. So depending on which event the listing agent wanted to be first, most homes were either listed on a Monday in order to make the Tour list, or on a Friday to make the list of what homes people wanted to see over the weekend.

Fast forward to today, and neither the Tuesday Broker Tour nor the classic “open house” as we know it are allowed because of COVID restrictions. In its place are carefully scheduled 30-minute showing appointments that are highly regulated. Since most home buyers are still busy at work Monday through Friday, the vast majority of home showings still take place on Saturdays and Sundays. Consequently, the vast majority of listing agents are listing their homes much closer to the weekend in order to get on the radar of buyers who are planning their visits, i.e. either on Thursday, or more likely on Friday.

So if you're going to pick a day where you pay the closest attention to the local real estate market, Friday is your day. And bear in mind that because of the discrete showing windows for homes, there are only so many showings that can be accommodated on any weekend. For desirable homes, that means the entire weekend showing schedule is fully booked by Friday afternoon! So not only is it important to play close attention on Friday, but you literally need to pounce on whatever showing windows are available.

Happy house hunting this weekend!