Do you need to sell today, in a cooling market? Many people know that in Silicon Valley, often the best time to sell your home is anywhere from January to May – and after that, the sales begin to slow and sometimes prices fall. This year, that seems to be happening, and more. We are now in early August and it’s definitely a shifting market.
How are you going to sell your home in a cooling real estate market?
Sometimes you have to sell when you don’t really want to. Maybe it’s a divorce, a job transfer, death of a spouse, loss of a job, or maybe even something good – the type of home you’ve been waiting years to buy is now available. But you have to sell first, before you can buy. For better or worse, you need to sell now, when the market is cooling. What to do?
Understand the pattern. Jump the line.
Information is power. Learn the market stats and figure out the trajectory. If homes are losing value at the rate of 1% a month and your house isn’t selling, you may need to JUMP the line to get ahead of the curve. Translation: let’s say it looks like prices are going down .25% per week for a house like yours. If you “hold out” and don’t reduce your price to sell, the gap between what you think your home is worth and what capable buyers will think it is worth may widen. But instead, if you cut your price 1.5%, you may be able to be the first home sold. Wait a few more weeks, and it could be much worse. The quick way of saying it is to “cut your losses”. In a declining market, the longer it takes to sell, the more you lose. It’s that simple.
