photo credit: Mohsan

Monday, September 1, 2008. Labor Day. Traditionally, it’s the date for residential real estate sales to wind down. Although the selling season doesn’t end on that date (it never does anyway), many home buyers start thinking about holding off on their purchase plans until the following spring, if they haven’t found anything suitable by then. Unless of course it’s a super deal that can’t be passed up.

But here’s the thing: We have five months and a couple of days left, before Labor Day rings our door bells. Will you have sold and closed on your Edgebrook or Sauganash home by then? I don’t mean to get you worried, but if your home has been on the market for sale for a while, with no serious prospect buyers who have come through your residence at least twice, let alone a bona fide purchase offer, you need to consider the following.

At present, the average market time for homes that have closed within the past 90 days, stands at 171 days in Edgebrook (12 closed SFH), and at 94 days in Sauganash (6 closed SFH). Granted, a number of these homes were marketed over the last fall/winter/holiday season, hence they stayed on the market for a somewhat longer period of time. It is reasonable then to assume that they would have sold faster, had they been placed on the market for sale a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, you should still go with the worst-case scenario, and assume that if you put your Edgebrook house on the market today, it will take an average of almost 6 months, before it sells. That’s one month past Labor Day. In Sauganash, your outlook is better, at 3 months and some change.

But wait, there’s more. When Realtors talk about “market time”, or “days on market” (DOM), we mean the time frame from the date the listing was received by the MLS to the date a purchase contract was accepted by the sellers, and all contingencies except the financing contingency were removed/satisfied. So, that means that you still need to add the time that is required for the purchasers’ lender to underwrite their mortgage application. Again, assume the worst-case scenario which is that your purchasers were not pre-approved for a mortgage and started their application for a mortgage within a few days after you accepted their purchase offer. In the current mortgage climate that we find ourselves in, the process from application to receiving the lender’s “clear to close” can last anywhere between 6-8 weeks, and that assumes that the purchasers had all their ducks in a row. So, in Edgebrook, that could potentially mean that you won’t close on the sale of your house until the end of November, and in Sauganash you would move out at the end of August, if your house entered the market today. Again, I’m looking at worst-case scenarios and current market time averages here. Chances are, that despite the current market conditions you will have sold and closed on your house before Labor Day, provided that you have priced your property correctly and it’s exposed to the max, online.

Contact us, if you feel the need to discuss your home selling plans with us. As your neighbors, we hate to see you leave. But at the very least we may be able to provide you with a fresh perspective on how to accomplish your immediate real estate goal.

Addendum: To see what you currently are, or what you would be up against, in terms of competing home sellers, click here (Edgebrook), and here (Sauganash).

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