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| Phil to Sellers: Nearly Time to Get Listed! |
For a variety of reasons, we are suggesting Friday, February 15, 2013 as an ideal date to list (or relist) your home for sale in R5Realty country, which includes the Mainline and Delco suburbs surrounding the R5 Railway to CenterCity Philadelphia. If you are currently listed, or are considering listing your home for sale soon, the next two months are an ideal time to plan for a February launch or relaunch.
Our opinion is that mid-Atlantic staters tend to hunker down during the holiday month of December and the typically wintriest month of January. By mid-February, folks are generally ready to shuck off Cabin Fever and begin looking towards a new spring and a new beginnings. In addition to the (hopefully) improving weather and increasing daylight, other annual milestones which stimulate house-hunting this time of year include:
* Passing of February 2 Groundhog Day and February 5 Superbowl (winter's final grand unofficial holiday).
* Valentine's Day on Thursday, February 14 and its attendant afterglow of lasting love and Unity.
* Phillies' first workout Friday February 15th and the inevitable media focus on Spring arriving soon.
* Philadelphia Flower Show excitement for March 2. What better time to stimulate a desire to both plant roots and acquire the land to put them!
While February 15th is a nice midpoint, anytime between GroundHog's Day and earliest March, will poise a Philadelphia/Suburban Seller to capture the attention of the largest swath of serious buyers. One may find a greater number of lookers out and about come April, but we find the pre-spring shoppers are Not-to-be-Missed. Pre-spring buyers often possess a focus and intensity that results in quick deals of enduring quality. These early-buyers, who are willing to muck through the slush, can be a whole different ballgame than fair-weather-folks who bop about on a 60-degree post-Easter Sunday.
In addition to being a hardier and most-determined breed, early-season buyers often are aware and accepting that quality homes still attract competitive prices in our region. Many early-bird buyers learned this the hard way and were outbid on the best houses of 2012. These folks often have a market-saviness and determination to buy, which can see them step up to the plate with quality full-price offers, devoid of the games that less-tested and less-focused buyers are apt to indulge.
Even if you - as a seller - don't link up with one of these eager-beaver-buyers, a mid-February premier will get your home firmly established in the minds of real estate agents by the time they are bursting with April's avalanche of buyer clients. In addition a mid-February listing offers the opportunity to experiment with a higher asking price for the first month, while still having time to adjust downward in the high-volume selling months. Finally, since 100 days For Sale is a typical marketing tolerance-point for sellers, a mid-February listing takes you to to Memorial Day weekend - which is the traditional end to the Spring Buyers Market and beginning of Summer Season. We'd hope you home sells before Memorial Day, but if not, late May is an excellent time to have your listing expire and to reassess and retool.
What to do between now and Valentines Day? If you're already on market, this is a great time to give your listing a rest, so you can re-emerge as a new-kid-on-the-block in 2013. With the holidays, inclement weather, vacations in play, this is the least likely time to attract quality showings and buyers.
These holiday/weather distraction also make December and January a less attractive premier date for the New Seller. Your new listing will get scant attention while racking up "days-on-market," leading the late March buyer to wonder whats wrong with your home that it hasnt sold in 100+ days on market!
December is a great time to start organizing and getting your fix-up projects underway. Start now on the interior and alert you contractors to be ready to do outdoor projects on the first passible days of January and early February. You'll be ahead of the game and prepared to begin marketing your home from a position of power at the best time of the 2013 home-selling season. The Prudential R5Realty.com team of Ted and Heather Gross welcome your call or email inquiry for a no-oligation analysis of your home's prospects in the upcoming market.
