Now Is The Perfect Time To Sell Your Home
The real estate market has been scorching hot since nearly a year ago. Many people think this has been all about homebuyers. Countless first time home buyers and those homeowners who were looking to upgrade jumped head first into the housing market. Much of this was brought on by historically low mortgage rates. As a result, much of what is being written has been focused on those looking to buy homes. While this is completely reasonable, it ignores the fact that right now is actually the perfect time to sell your home. The team at Streamline Realty is here to walk you through why now is a great time to put your house on the market.
Reasons Why It Is A Great Time To Sell Your Home
Many people who own a home are currently ecstatic that the housing market is going through the roof. For many homeowners, the real estate rush that has been spurred by low mortgage rates has been wonderful for your home value and equity. As a result, it might seem odd to consider selling your home right now instead of reaping the benefit of a red hot market. However, when you look at the current state of real estate transactions and future trends, right now might actually be the perfect time to sell your home.
Homes Are Selling Faster Than Ever
A lot of homeowners are reluctant to put their homes up for sale because they do not want to go through the hassle of putting their home on the market. There is a lot of prep work that is involved and then, usually, there is no telling how long your home will sit there waiting for buyers. However, that is not what is happening right now. Selling your home has never been easier than today’s real estate environment.
Houses are not staying on the market like they have in the past. Homes are selling incredibly fast. In fact, in 2020, the average home was only on the market for 16 days before it was sold. This is a full 5 days faster than 2019. This is not happening in just a couple of markets. This is the trend for most markets across the nation. Low interest rates mean that home buyers recognize that buying a home right now is a tremendous value. This is causing home buyers to act as fast as possible.
Home Buyers Are Less Picky Than Ever
Confidence that your home will be sold quickly is very assuring to anyone who is considering putting their home on the market. Another motivating factor for potential sellers is that home buyers are buying a lot of homes, regardless of their condition. The inventory of available homes for purchase is at record lows. As the old adage goes, beggars can’t be choosers. Since there are so few homes available for sale, those who want to take advantage of low mortgage rates have to buy whatever is available.
This is causing some interesting trends in the real estate market. In 2020, 63% of homebuyers submitted an offer on a home sight unseen. This is unheard of! For most people, buying a home is the largest transaction they will make in their lifetimes. As such, many people want to go to great lengths to make sure that any home they buy is the perfect home for them. That is not the case in today’s market. Instead of going through elaborate tours, walk-throughs and lengthy consideration periods, many are just making offers. This is a great position for homesellers to be in.
Home Sellers Benefit From Bidding Wars
One of the best ways to try and get the most from selling your home is to ensure there are multiple offers. In today’s market, multiple offers for each home is fairly common. As of January, 56% of homebuyers are finding themselves in bidding wars. This number is up from 52% in January. Getting multiple offers on your home means that you can use the different offers to increase the amount you get for your home. Also, many potential homebuyers are getting tired of being outbid, which means they are motivated to pay above and beyond what they normally would. The dream for any home seller is getting more than your asking price. This is happening more than ever, which makes now a great time to sell your home.
Reasons Why Selling Now Is Better Than Later
It is clear that today’s real estate market is a true sellers-market. As such, it might sound reasonable that tomorrow’s market will be even better for sellers, so there is no reason to sell right now. Afterall, home prices have increased dramatically over the past year, so why should you sell right now before they go even higher? The reason why it might be better to sell right now is because of what happens after you sell your home. After you sell your home, you then have to buy a new home and waiting on buying a house might put you at a disadvantage.
Home Prices Will Continue To Rise
As we have already discussed, home prices have risen dramatically. This is fantastic for homeowners because it means that you have most likely gained a bunch of equity. Having a bunch of equity and selling your home means that you can use that equity to buy a larger home. However, if you wait too long to do this, you might find yourself priced out of the market. According to many experts, house prices will continue to increase through at least 2022. Now, you might be asking yourself how you can be priced out of the market by house prices if your selling price and equity will also increase? Good question …
Mortgage Rates Will Increase
Not only are home prices expected to increase, so are mortgage rates. Today’s mortgage rates are near historic lows, but they will not stay that way forever. The reason why mortgage rates are so low is that the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in order to prevent economic fallout from the pandemic. However, as we start to get through the pandemic and economic stimulus starts to repair the damage, there will no longer be a need for rock bottom rates. Soon, the Federal Reserve will start to increase interest rates. When they do, mortgage rates will increase. This means that expensive homes will cost even more over the life of a loan. This also means that the large demand for new homes will slow as mortgage rates inch upwards.
Final Thoughts
The real estate market has been going through the roof for the past year and it has been a boon to homeowners. Most people implicitly understand that the ideal goal for real estate transactions is to buy low and sell high. This means that there will inevitably be homeowners who are thinking about selling their home, but do not want to do it quite yet because they want to hit the peak of the market.
The danger to this is that timing the market is an imperfect science. Your effort to time the peak of the market might mean that you end up missing the sweet spot and soon find yourself in an undesirable position. The truth is that if you truly think that the market has not peaked, then selling now and buying a new home will give you the best of both worlds. You can take advantage of the rising home prices and equity to get into a bigger home and then still see your new house’s value increase.
Even if you have not thought about selling your home, today’s frenzied real estate market means you should at least give it a quick once-over. Today’s high demand and low inventory means it is a seller’s dream. If you would like to talk about the potential benefits of selling your home, contact us! Our professional realtors would love to walk you through the ins-and-outs of today’s market and see if it is the right decision for you.
