curious - how long did it take to sell your house?

[cranberry]

So the decision is made - I'm selling my house and will be moving into an apartment for a year or two. I'm very excited, actually.

I know nobody has a crystal ball to forecast how long it takes for a house to sell. But I was just wondering about different people's experiences. Any thoughts?

My realtor showed me comparable properties that sold recently. The shortest amount of time on the market was 5 days. The longest was 228.

I'm also wondering when to time the apartment move. I'd love to move a little early, especially since I feel like I'm tripping over myself as I get ready. It would be nice to not feel rushed. My house is paid for, so I believe I'd just be paying for lawn care and snow removal, property taxes, insurance, and electricity if I moved early.

But then again, there's no telling how long it will take to sell my house, so that strategy could have me wasting money as well.

Has anyone ever moved out of their house before it was under contract? How risky is it to do that?

Thanks as always!

[kgb18]

We've never sold, but we bought about 2 1/2 years ago when the market was still bad. Our house was only on the market for 3 weeks when we bought it. We jumped on it. We knew it was priced well because things were bad and we knew it probably wouldn't sit long and we really liked it.

We're probably going to buy a bigger house in about two years. I don't think I would buy another house until I was sure ours was sold first. I don't want to carry two mortgages.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

None one here can offer a guess without knowing the market in your area, comparables and what you price it at.

[Gardening Grandma]

My son sold his house in March of this year. He had an offer after 3 weeks. We sold our last house in 2005. We had an offer (our asking price) in 11 days. But in the 80's I had a house sit on the market for over a year before an offer came in.

If you can afford to move early (and it sounds doable), it is much less stressful.

[Deleted]

2 days but I priced it to sell.

[cranberry]

Savoir Faire - totally understood. I know nobody can tell me how long it will take for MY house to sell. I was just curious about other's experiences.

GG - Fortunately, I can afford to move early and yes, it would be so much less stressful! I just wish I knew how early is too early. I started looking at apartments yesterday, mainly to get the lay of the land and re-familiarize myself with the typical size of a one-bedroom apartment. I saw one that I loved, but felt it was too early. I hope they still have some available whenever I do move. Still, it was tempting to snatch it.

[midjd]

Also never sold, but the house we bought was on the market for about 5 months. According to the realtor, we were only the third couple to look at it (and it is a beautiful house, priced well below market) - so if we hadn't bitten, it might still be for sale.

5 to 228 days is quite a range... I'd expect it to take at least 6 months, but that all depends on how you price it. And I'd be reluctant to move out before I had a firm offer.

[cranberry]

I should add - the 5 comparable houses she showed me sold in 5, 14, 21, 214, and 228 days. So it's quite a range!

[midjd]

What are the noticeable differences between the 5/14/21 and 214/228 houses? Different pricing? Features? If there doesn't seem to be any explanation for why some are selling more quickly than others, it may be the case that there was already a buyer ready before the house was even listed.

[Deleted]

It all depends. House was put into MLS on Friday, had an offer Monday evening. My neighbors house sat on the market for months, but it was overpriced to start with.

[Small Biz Owner]

The lower the price the faster it will sell. How much are you willing to hold out for?

[cranberry]

Of the 5/14/21 houses, one was impeccably updated. The others seemed average, from what I can tell.

For the 228-day house, on paper I can't see anything really wrong with it. Not sure why it took so long.

For the 214-day house, it looks like it was overpriced. It started at $184,900 at the end of March 2010 and sold for $162,500 in December. It looks like in June they started doing some improvements - new floor, fresh paint, etc. It's on my street and almost exactly like mine except it has a finished basement and a finshed 4th bedroom. I knew the people why owned it - they were quite elderly when they sold, well into their 80s. So perhaps it wasn't very updated. But it was still probably very cared for.

I also personally know the realtor for the 214-day house and she is quite a flake. Not sure if it took a long time because she's a poor businesswoman. The house across the street from me is also being sold by her - seems like it's been on the market forever. But I also think it might be overpriced.

I don't mind lowering the price if my house sells quickly. I don't want to get taken, surely, but I'm ready to get all this over with!

[msgumby]

Another advantage to getting an apartment early is you can move out a lot of your stuff to better "stage" your house. People viewing housing don't want to see a lot of stuff in it, so if you get the apartment early, you can declutter a lot easier without having to pay for storage. You will also be able to move out your valuables so you won't have to worry as much about theft. Because you can afford it, I would just get an apartment when you put it on the market.

[thyme4change]

4 months - but that was 10 years ago.

[Colleenz]

Last one sold in one week. We prepped the house well (spotlessly clean and vacuumed our way out the door every day). We also priced it slightly below the comps.

[kat]

6 yrs ago I put a for sale sign on my house and sold it within an hr at full asking price......realtor saw the sign stopped in and bought it for himself.

[april47]

I sold one a few years back the same day. The neighbors had out of town visitors that saw the sign go up and bought it. The next house I sold took 6 weeks.

[Deleted]

We actually went under contract on our house a few weeks ago. It was on the market for 3 weeks by the time we got an offer.

Realistically, there was a HUGE amount of right person/right time. Our house is one of the smaller ones in our subdivision and one of the problems is that you can get a lot more house, for not that much more money. For example, the house across the street from us was listed for about $30K more than ours and it was 500 SF bigger with tons of upgrades. These people just decided they didn't need that stuff.

The house we bought was on the market for almost 2 years. They bought in 2007 for $553K and did a ton of work. Upgraded all the windows, turned the 3 reasons room into a huge family room, added an electric fireplace, mudroom, built a deck, put up a 6-foot privacy fence, added a 2nd A/C unit for the family room, added radiant heat for the heating of the family room.

They priced it pretty aggressively in their minds because they put it on the market at $599K. Eventually bringing it down to $525K. Right after they dropped the price, we low-balled them and came to something in the middle and they got a contract.

[cranberry]

Jun 17, 2011 10:55:30 GMT -5 msgumby said:

Another advantage to getting an apartment early is you can move out a lot of your stuff to better "stage" your house. People viewing housing don't want to see a lot of stuff in it, so if you get the apartment early, you can declutter a lot easier without having to pay for storage. You will also be able to move out your valuables so you won't have to worry as much about theft. Because you can afford it, I would just get an apartment when you put it on the market.

Yes, the idea of getting stuff out to the new apartment would make things so much easier. Also, I have a cat, so I could get her moved over to the new place and I wouldn't have to worry about her escaping or taking her out when the house is shown (she hates the car).

If I get the apartment earlier, I could price the house to sell and maybe the overlap wouldn't take too long. It's so tempting.

[tskeeter]

cranberry, it's all about pricing the house to sell. The house next to us has been on and off the market for the past three years. The problems has always been that it is over priced.

If I wanted to sell a house quickly, I'd figure out the fair market value of the house, then list it for, maybe, 5% less than fair value. And I'd be prepared to take as little as 10% less than fair value. Or use some other more creative selling techniques, such as offering to pay a portion of the buyer's closing costs, or moving costs, or make improvements to the house that can be rolled into the buyer's purchase price so they don't have to come up with a chunk of cash right after they close. (I be really cautious about the last item. You don't want to a bunch of money into the house and have the deal fall through.) Or offer an agent premium if the house sells within a certain time period.

[zibazinski]

I priced mine, bigger, nicer, huge backyard, the same price as those on the busy main street. I'm on a cul de sac. Anyone looking in that neighborhood is going to pick mine for the same money. Just have to get people looking in that neighborhood.

[qofcc]

My last house sold in 3 days for $500 under asking price after a bidding war, but that was 12 years ago and I think I priced it too low, but the real estate agent was sure I wouldn't get the asking price.

I have a friend who's been trying to sell a house for 3 years. They've had 5 offers that all ended up falling through after months and months of dragging things out. All different reasons. One couple bought another property and didn't tell the bank, another forged documents and the bank found out, another lost their jobs before closing, another backed out when the house had some storm damage even though the damage was repaired, current deal may fall through because there seems to be an issue with the survey and they might not own a 30sf section of yard on a several acre plot. It seems to be the house from hell that won't go away and it's priced to sell and in much better condition than most of the other nearby houses, but it's a very poor rural area with no jobs and lots of foreclosures.

[Deleted]

Moving out beforehand and allowing your agent to put a lockbox on the front door will be a big plus.

Also get all your inspections done up front e.g. home inspection, termite and whatever else is customary in your area. Talk to your agent as to what will be done. While the buyer may come up with his/her own home inspector get an ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) member inspection so you know UP FRONT if you have any problems. Then you can decide whether you will repair or simply disclose. Too many deals fall apart because of home inspections. And many buyers use them to low-ball a property.

There's a lot of good advice in this post:

"If I wanted to sell a house quickly, I'd figure out the fair market value of the house, then list it for, maybe, 5% less than fair value. And I'd be prepared to take as little as 10% less than fair value. Or use some other more creative selling techniques, such as offering to pay a portion of the buyer's closing costs, or moving costs, or make improvements to the house that can be rolled into the buyer's purchase price so they don't have to come up with a chunk of cash right after they close. (I be really cautious about the last item. You don't want to a bunch of money into the house and have the deal fall through.)"

I believe most houses will sell within 30 days, regardless of the market if they are priced appropriately and can be shown. If you don't have an offer within 30 days you need to lower the price by at least 5%.

[Deleted]

And to actually answer your question, the last property I sold was my mother's little rental property in the summer of 2009. It was tenant occupied and unfortunately I had to keep it rented because the estate couldn't pay the mortgage otherwise. Although the tenant kept the place immaculate, agents had to make an appointment because of the tenant's large dog (a love but he had a scary bark).

The house sold VA full price within 3 weeks. There was one other offer which I turned down.

[phil5185]

I know someone who has sold 21 houses in PHX, takes about 3 weeks. But the whole factor is pricing, there are plenty of houses laying on the market that have the 2006 asking price (driven by upsidedown loans). They can sit for years - but if you use the 2011 price - 3 weeks. And that is a basic truth in any locale.

[busymom]

We rented a storage unit to put some stuff in so our house wouldn't look "cluttered". We had quite a few showings (no open houses) and it sold at the asking price in 10 days. But, the economy was stronger then than it is now, and the house we sold was a "starter" home with 2 bedrooms and an unfinished basement. Now we're in a nicer neighborhood with bigger houses, and the sales seem to take longer around here.

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

I sold last year in southern TX. House was on the market for ~40 days before the contract was signed. Roughly 20 people came by and looked at it. It was a house from the 80s that hadn't been updated (had a newer roof and AC though) and had ugly carpet (good condition...just bad color). I couldn't afford to update the carpet but probably would have found the $$ to if it had been on the market much longer. Mine was priced moderately for my neighborhood and I was very happy with the sale. I was pretty lucky though because the Homebuyer credit was in effect and the contract was signed right before it expired (The inspection was done afterwards and the buyer didn't want to lose the credit by walking so they were a little more flexible with the stuff they wanted fixed).

[TheOtherMe]

From what I can see in my neighborhood, it's all about the price and the updates. I live in a duplex. One sold very quickly last summer. The one on the other side of me is for sale since about February. They have had several price adjustments. It appears to be beautiful from the pictures. However, the other half of the building is in foreclosure. I have no idea of what the bank is wanting for that. I'm guessing it is hurting the sale of the other house. Right now, the people who are selling are keeping the lawn mowed for curb appeal.

[Waffle]

1st house I sold (1990) = zero hours? The guy who cut my grass told me if I ever decided to sell, he wanted to buy it. so when I decided to sell, I asked him if he still wanted it - he said yes.

2nd house (1995) - less than a month - don't remember exactly.

3rd house (2001) - horrible - I had two mortgages for over a year. I think I had some very bad pricing advise from my first realtor and I stuck with her for too long.

[cranberry]

Thanks, everyone! These responses have been so helpful!

I'm comfortable with pricing the house to sell, so that should work out. I just hope it doesn't take too long.

And I'm trying not to be naive about the apartment timing. I would still love to secure the apartment early - like as soon as possible. The house will likely go on the market in mid to late July. I would feel better securing an apartment soon and knowing that I have a place to live. I just don't want to wait until the last minute - I want to have some options when choosing an apartment.

Another reason I want to get the apartment issue settled is that I'm self-employed and work part time. Once I move, I'll be able to increase my hours (it's very hard to work in my house now, since everything is so distracting). But I need to show a prospective landlord that I can pay the rent and if I'm going to have a problem renting a place, I'd like to know that as soon as possible. I think I'll be okay, as I can show about $65k in savings now, steady income of $1,500 a month (part time) and my credit score is in the 800s. After the house sells, I'll have more in savings, too.

The apartments I'm looking into are in the $685 to $850 monthly range.

As I said, if I move early my main house expenses will be, I believe, yard maintenance, snow removal (if it takes that long), heat, electricity, property taxes, and insurance.

Do you think finding a place now is foolish? Naive? A good idea? When would you move?

Thanks!