Tips

Thinking About Waiting Until Spring to Sell Your Home? You May Want to Think Again

In normal years, the winter can be a tough time to sell your home; there are often fewer buyers, making it challenging to sell your home quickly and profitably—which often drives sellers to wait until spring to list their home.

But 2021 was not a normal year—and if you’re thinking about waiting until the spring to sell your home, you may want to think again.

recent article from realtor.com outlined the key reasons why homeowners should sell their home this winter (as opposed to waiting for spring), including:

  • There aren’t a lot of homes for sale—and the ones that are for sale are selling fast if priced right. Markets across the US are struggling with low inventory, and Indianapolis is no different. There simply aren’t enough homes on the market to satisfy buyers—and that means the available homes are selling quickly.
  • Home prices are at an all-time high. As a homeowner, you want to sell your home for the highest price possible—and that time is now. Here in Indy, home prices are still running 12% stronger than a year ago, tapered off 2% from October. The most recent report can be found here
  • Interest rates are increasing. Mortgage interest rates have been at historic lows for nearly two years, driving huge numbers of new buyers into the market. But those numbers are starting to increase, with the Mortgage Bankers Association projecting 4 percent interest rates by the end of 2022. This increase in interest rates could decrease buyers’ spending power—and make it harder to fetch top dollar for your home.

 The Takeaway: The market is incredibly favorable to sellers this winter—so if you’ve been thinking about pushing your home sale until the spring, you may want to reconsider. Let’s talk through the details.

Time = Money

If you watch any bit of TV, you know that “Do-It-Yourself” Projects are still going strong. My favorite is still “This Old House.” I tell my clients that they can do a lot of projects themselves, but one “project” that you should NOT tackle is Selling/Buying Your Home. I say this not because I am a Broker and want your business. Instead, I speak with over 40 years of real-life experiences with Today’s Buyers and Sellers.

It comes down to Time = Money.

A perfect example is speaking with a client last month as they tried to line up surveyors and zoning boards for a piece of land they wanted to sell. It took them over a month to finally call me. They were exhausted and frustrated, to say the least. I was able to get the ball rolling in a week.

By contacting me first and leveraging our network and experience, I could have saved him three weeks. The bottom line is time = money. So give us a call before you embark on the journey.

We work harder to make good things happen!

Who Doesn’t Want a CA$H Offer and a Quick Close

A past client asked me to weigh in and I wanted to share – in case this may also apply to you.

They received an unsolicited letter in the mail offering to buy their house for $255,000. Cash with a Quick Close.  They claimed to be a local real estate investor.

After a bit of digging, here are my initial findings/thoughts:

  • The letter writer, Simba Growth LLC, turned out not to be a local real estate investment company.  Instead, they are a California-registered company, and the principle is a California-licensed real estate agent. 🚩
  • Now, I am not biased toward investment companies. During the past year, I’ve had many clients receive offers from investment companies.  Some were reputable, and some were not.  We have successfully closed with a number of them. However, we have sent more packing.  There are many reasons for that which I’d be glad to talk over with you.  There are pros and cons to every deal.  While the pros can be pretty darn enticing, the cons can be really bad.  So it is extremely important to vet them carefully
  • The purchase contract they put forth was poorly written 🚩and not one that provides the Seller many protections 🚩that a standard Indiana form would.  Worse, it gave the Buyer many outs and the Seller very little control over the whole process.  Thus, the odds of this proposed transaction being closed timely or at the price offered were very slim. IMHO.
  • This proposed transaction would require the Seller to find a new home (not always an easy task, esp in this market) and move within 30 days.  That’s a very short timeline from several angles.  For example: Find a New Home, Get Financed, and Move All Within 30 Days. (Remember this Offer was unsolicited…) And all the while, Simba Growth still has the right to back out.  Ouch!
  • Now for the Offer itself, I found three very similar homes in the Seller’s subdivision that sold during the past six months.  All were considerably smaller in size and sold for $11-28,000 more.  🚩So the 255K purchase price offered was not a good deal.  The Seller could, in all likelihood, net more dollars (even after paying realtor fees) going a different route- and have more security and comfort in the process.   

So if something doesn’t seem right, call a Trusted Resource. Always happy to weigh in!

We work harder to make good things happen!