Why Homeowners Think Now Is The Best Time To Sell

Originally Posted On: https://goodmenproject.com/everyday-life-2/why-homeowners-think-now-is-the-best-time-to-sell/

 

More and more homeowners are interested in selling their properties across the country. From the outside it appears that there’s a seller’s market, but is that truly the case? What’s causing homeowners to list their houses and sell more now than in the last few years? Some deeper research into this topic unveils a few key factors at play – and they make a lot of sense.

Property Prices Are Up

Redfin produces regular statistics for the national housing market, and its most recent report shows that property prices are up 1.5% from last year. Compare the figures to those from five years ago, and it’s even more impressive. The median sale price is currently $435,285, while at the same time in 2020 it was a mere $330,000. This increase can’t go on forever and there’s a general worry that it could fall off in the next couple of years, hence many homeowners think now is the time to sell.

These worries are compounded by things like the real estate values of some properties going down in certain areas of the country. A previous article on this website outlined that areas of Louisiana and Florida saw dramatic drops in property value due to Global Warming. As the impact of Global Warming continues to wreak havoc across the nation, homeowners fear that their location could be the next one to get hit by these value decreases.

As a consequence, it makes logical sense for now to be the right time to sell. There’s a bit of panic mixed with the market conditions being in a fairly good place for sellers at the moment.

Mortgage Rate Lock-Ins Are Easing

The other reason that hundreds of property owners list their homes is the state of mortgage rate lock-ins. A lot of people purchased homes just before the pandemic, locking themselves into very good contracts. They took out fixed-rate mortgages that stayed the same for the next five or so years. The problem with this is that those mortgage rates are now expiring and homeowners are no longer locked in to the good rates they had many years before.

As a result, property owners are eager to sell their homes because the current mortgage rates are too much to handle. There’s a rise in people who wish to downsize and use their current home to purchase a more affordable one, negating the need for a large mortgage.

What Can Homeowners Do To Improve Their Property Value?

With so much interest in selling homes, lots of property owners should think about improving the value of their homes. A few changes of various sizes can make a big difference and mean that selling a home suddenly makes more sense than it did before.

• Take Better Property Photos: Oftentimes, the value of a home can increase by changing the way photos are taken. Professional real estate photography, coupled with property image retouching, will make any home look more appealing to prospective buyers. This is a must for any seller who wishes to drive up competition and generate lots of viewings. Photos bring more interest to a property and this drives the value up as multiple parties enter a bidding war.

 

• Carry Out Repairs: A home is more likely to sell for its maximum value when all the running repairs have been carried out. Buyers will be less inclined to big good money for houses that require numerous expensive repairs. Taking care of them prior to selling can end up being a wiser investment. The value added to the home outweighs the cost of the repairs themselves.

 

• Sell When There’s Actually Demand: Just because lots of people are selling their homes now, that doesn’t automatically mean there’s a demand for those properties. This is best demonstrated by the fact there are 500,000 more people selling their homes than those looking to buy. It’s a really unique situation where people want to sell their houses but other people aren’t that keen on buying. Consequently, homeowners have to either settle for terrible deals to offload their homes or remove their property from the market and wait for a better time. The latter is a much smarter idea when selling isn’t a necessity. Wait until more buyers enter the market and a house will automatically go up by 5-10% in value based on demand.

 

Does Selling Make Sense?

The answer to this question will ultimately depend on the homeowner’s situation. The big mistake in the current market is to copy what everyone else is doing. If someone chooses to sell their home because they’ve made a profit on it and there’s a lot of demand for homes in their area, then it makes perfect sense. The right conditions are in place for the sale to go through reasonably quickly and net the seller a lot of money.

On the other hand, homeowners in certain parts of the country might wish to hold onto their properties for the moment. If there hasn’t been a huge increase in property values in a certain location – or there’s no demand for homes on the market, as is the case in a lot of places, then selling for the sake of selling makes very little sense at all.

It all comes down to the individual homeowner’s situation and the state of the housing market in their area. That being said, if a general outlook is taken based on the statistics available, then selling right now is not the best idea. This is mainly because there are loads of homes for sale, but not many buyers. As mentioned previously, it puts the seller in a position where they have no power over the sale. They’re forced to settle for low-ball bids because nobody’s interested in buying homes right now.

Will this change? Perhaps, and it links back to the mortgage rates discussion earlier. While sellers are jumping on the train because their mortgage lock-ins are ending, the current forecasts show that general mortgage rates are decreasing. Lower rates could mean that people become more interested in buying homes, which then makes it the ideal time to sell.