Faster is Better: Cheetahs, AT&T, and Selling your Home

I was recently speaking to a group of homeowners who are thinking of selling their home in the next year. One of the lessons that I was trying to impart is the idea that faster is better when selling their home. I often hear, “I don’t care about selling fast. I care about getting the most from my home sale as I can.” What many sellers don’t realize is that there is usually a direct correlation between days on market and the net proceeds of your home sale.

Faster is better: 3 days is better than 30 days

As I was talking to the home sellers, all I could think of when I uttered the words, “faster is better”, was the AT&T commercial. You know the one. The little boy advises the adult that Grandma would like to be faster and they could strap a cheetah to her back in order to achieve this end result.

The one thing that is true of this marketing campaign is that faster is better, at least as it pertains to home selling. Consider for a few minutes if you were a buyer. You found a home that you really love. You found out it has only been on the market for 3 days. Consider what kind of offer you are likely to make.

Some of the offer decision making process will include:

• How quickly would you likely feel compelled to make that offer?
• What is the likelihood that you may have other potential buyers who want this property?
• How likely are they to take a lower offer?

Would your answers change if you knew the home had been on the market for 30 days? Most of the time the answer is, “Yes.” The average offer will be much higher if it’s made in 3 days than if it is made in 30. Most buyers will feel compelled to make a higher offer and do it more quickly. As the 30 day mark approaches, buyers begin to feel that there is no rush, and there won’t be any competing offers. Motivation gets much lower.

The truth is that in many markets, 30 days is still a very quick sale time. If the average days on market is 60, 45, or 90 days (or more) then 30 is a fabulous statistic. Offers will continue to decline every week the home lingers on the market.

Faster is better: Keeping your home show ready

Another part of the faster is better argument is that home sellers will have less work when the home sells quickly. It is a lot of work keeping a home show ready. Making the bed, vacuuming, keeping the laundry rooms free of work, removing the pets from the home, so on and so forth. How many times do you want to do this? When the home sells quickly, you’ll have to do this a lot less.

The truth is that when selling a home, faster is almost always better. Sellers will have less work preparing for showings, leaving the home for showings, and stress of wondering when the offer will finally come in. Offers will likely be higher, and very possibly there will be more of them if the home is shown in it’s best possible condition.

For more information on how to prepare your home for sale in today’s market, call Margaret and our team of home staging professionals today 815-530-3566.