Your home still matters regardless of the times
No matter when you sell, remember that the general advice about making your home attractive still applies. Even in the hottest market, there are still plenty of homes lying on the market without buyers. In fact, we have an entire article about potential mistakes you can make when selling your home. Make sure you make any basic repairs, do a thorough cleaning of your home, and hire real estate or legal professionals to handle complicated paperwork.
Put yourself on show for a potential buyer. Would you buy your home now if you were hypothetically viewing it for the first time? Taking good care of your home while you live there will always be a good time to sell it.
Bottom-line
After all the turmoil of dealing with the start of the pandemic and no traffic at all on my listing, we were able to sell our home after three months. I have to be honest – I was sweating bullets the whole time. After all, I’m not independently wealthy or anything. I’m not going to pay for two houses just because I can.
Fast forward twelve more months. Now, it seems like a totally different world. Although the pandemic has been difficult for all of us, it has not turned the world into a post-apocalyptic battlefield. Science prevails, as vaccine rollout continues to push us toward normalcy. On the accommodation front, we luckily moved into a bigger house as we were all stuck at home. So we got a chance to enjoy a little more space during the lockdown. In fact, a lot of people now tell us how lucky we were when we decided to sell. However, it certainly didn’t seem like it when I was struggling to make payments for two homes at the start of the pandemic.
I’m sharing my personal home selling story for one reason – to demonstrate how unpredictable the world can be. You can plan for months and try to time the housing market perfectly, but there are no guarantees. Is there a mathematically best time to sell a house? Absolutely. Sell on Fridays in the second half of May if you own in New York City. Just don’t expect your plan to always work, no matter where you live.
Here’s a guaranteed way to feel good about your decision: Enjoy your home while you live there. Let your family and financial circumstances decide when it’s time to sell your current home. Let what happens happen. That way, you can rest assured even if you miss an opportunity later.
