“When should we put our house on the market?”
It’s a question Joan Herlong of Herlong Sotheby’s International Realty hears a lot this time of year.
“A lot of people think the best time around here is when the azaleas bloom,” she says. “But that’s also when inventories peak and the spring market heats up.”
That means more competition, which means flatter pricing, Herlong warns.
“In other words, it’ll be harder to command the price you want,” she says.
Therefore, Herlong often advises sellers to go to market in January and February, before the spring rush.
“In one case, we listed at a higher price than we might have been able to in the spring, and had an offer in less than a week,” she says. “And that, in turn, raised comps in the neighborhood for those who were going to market in April.”
But there is a flipside to the strategy.
“Something that really hurts agent credibility is all the social media videos saying, ‘Now is the best time to buy, now is the best time to sell,’” she says. “But the problem is that those videos are up all year round. But if ‘right now’ is always the best time to buy or sell, then there is really no best time to buy or sell.”
Instead, Herlong insists on listing according to the seller’s timeline, not hers.
“Because if you feel like your Realtor is rushing you, then that’s probably not the right Realtor for you,” she says.
