How long will it take my home to sell? When is the best time to sell?

Over the past 3 months, homes in Athens were on the market for an average of 136 days before closing.  The average sold to list price for homes that sold was 96.3%.   There are currently 720 active listings in Athens and 296 sold properties during the past 3 months.

The amount of time it will take to sell your home depends on many factors, including condition, location, size/number of bedrooms, and the list price.  If the home is priced too high, it’s likely that it won’t be shown to potential buyers.  With so many homes on the market, real estate agents try to make the best use of their time with a buyer and show homes that they believe are a good fit for the client, including features and price.  Having an overpriced home on the market runs the risk of getting no potential buyers to see them home, or getting unreasonably low offers.  Your home needs to look as good as possible and have the best list price.  Otherwise, your chances of getting an offer are greatly reduced.

We all want the best price when selling a home, but having a realistic list price from the start gets the most exposure and usually a shorter time on the market.

             2014        Homes sold     Days on Market

   January – March       236                       151

   April – June               366                       142

   July – September      301                       136

These numbers show that summer is the best time to sell, but it also shows that homes are selling at all times.  An advantage to selling in the “off season” is that many sellers believe they should wait till spring to get the largest number of potential buyers. Even though it’s true that spring is the best time to sell,  consider that you also have the most competition at that time.

If you need guidance on ways to get your home ready to sell, check out this article.