Hundreds of thousands of homes sell each year, so how do you get yours to be one of them?
You may be wondering, “How long does it take to sell a house?” It can be confusing to get started, and you might feel overwhelmed. When you have a basic understanding of the timeline, it can help you feel a little calmer.
Continue reading this article, and we will go over the average time to sell a house and more.
Understand Your Market
Depending on your market, your home could be off the market as soon as you put it up. If you’re in a seller’s market and there is less inventory than there are buyers, it is likely that your home will fly off the shelf.
On the other hand, if you’re in a buyer’s market, you’re likely to wait quite a bit longer. Knowing the type of market you’re in will allow you to put the best strategy for selling your home together.
If you need to sell your house fast, you might look into people and services that can help you get the job done. Real estate agents and cash home buyers are a couple of options to consider.
Timeline for Each Step of Home Selling
While you can’t nail down exactly how long it will take to sell your home, there are some basic guidelines.
List, Show, Wait
The first step to selling your home is listing the home and waiting for offers. Your home is likely to be on the market for at least 1 to 3 months before you even get an offer.
If you need to sell your home fast, this could be a problem, but if you plan ahead, it shouldn’t be as stressful. Your home is likely to be off the market for 65-95 days.
Accepting an Offer
Once you have an offer, it won’t be long until you know whether it is going to work or not. Most deadlines on accepting offers are 24, 48, or 72 hours after you get it.
The sooner you accept an offer, the sooner your house is going to sell.
Home Inspection
Depending on the contract you’ve agreed upon with the buyer, it might take 5 or 10 days to go through the home inspection process. Some buyers will even waive the inspection if it’s a competitive market, and they really want the property.
Post Inspection Counteroffer
Once the buyers get the home inspection report, they may present an adjusted offer and ask for repairs. This usually takes 48 hours or less to go through. If you still agree on the offer, you can keep moving forward.
The Closing Process
It takes around 30 days to close on a house once the home inspection is complete. The reason it takes this long is that the lender, title company, and the county records department needs to have time to do all of their work.
If you really need to get through the process quickly, you should look for an all-cash buyer.
Avoid These Home Selling Mistakes
Don’t leave your home on the market for too long. If your home is on the market for a long time, buyers start to wonder why it’s still on the market and are wary of looking at it.
Selling in the off-season is another big mistake. Winter is the slowest time for selling a home due to the weather and holidays. Try waiting to sell your house in the spring instead.
What Makes a Home Sell Quickly?
When you’re desperate to sell your home fast, there are some things you need to think about.
Location Is Key
While you can’t change the home’s location, you can use that location to boost your marketing efforts. If it’s close to good schools, shopping, or an attraction, you can talk about that in your listing.
If your home is in a remote location, you might have a few challenges getting people to see why it’s a plus and not a minus. Come up with creative ways to make people see how close it is to everything that matters without having to be too close to the hustle and bustle.
Your Price Point
Before you put your house up on the market, you should look at other homes and their price points. How much are the comparable homes in the area selling for?
If you can make your pricing more attractive than the other similar homes, you are likely to sell your home faster.
Is Your Home Move-In Ready?
Most people don’t want to have to do a lot of extra work in the home they move into. The more you can do to make the home move-in ready, the faster you’ll sell your home.
If there are any walls with bright paint, change that color out for a more neutral color that other people are more likely to enjoy looking at. If you have doors that don’t work properly, you should fix these as well. People like being able to open and close their doors and feel secure in their new environment.
How Long Does It Take to Sell a House? – Now You Know
The answer to “How long does it take to sell a house?” is very subjective as you can see from the information above. If you need to get your house off your hands fast and you don’t care so much about getting the most money, you might take a different path than someone who has time.
Do you want to learn more about real estate, homes, and other important information? Keep reading our blog to get the information you need.
