By Mike Bodeen · 14 November 2022
What Can Sellers Do?
In less than a year, our torridly hot Phoenix Metro residential real estate Seller’s market has slammed on the brakes and gone into reverse. The seller’s market is now a buyer’s market. (See Cromford Market Index Chart)
Yes, there are still two cities, Fountain Hills and Scottsdale, that remain in a seller’s market and two that are in balance, Paradise Valley and Cave Creek. But this will change as well, as these cities are all still trending south.
If you recall, the chart below registers a Seller’s market to be above 110, a buyer’s market below 90, and a balanced market between 90-110.
Fortunately, we did see a significant decrease in mortgage rates last week that came about as a result of the latest inflation numbers performing better than expected. It’s a start! But that’s not enough.
In the meantime, many sellers have now had their home on the market for several months and it remains unsold. Most everyone who is priced below a million dollars are looking at buyers needing to get financing – they’re not cash buyers.
“a seller … should strongly consider taking their home off the market during the holidays.”
So, what can a seller do to increase their odds of getting their home sold in a solidly buyer’s market? In the next few weeks, we’ll bring out our best ideas, based on a combined half century plus (Mike and Jonathan) of up and down market gyration history.
1) Take Your Home Off The market!
The first thought seems counter-intuitive, but a seller, considering when to list their home, or having logged some months on the market without a sale, should strongly consider taking their home off the market during the holidays. Historically, sales drop this time of year anyway.
If you don’t have to sell right now, enjoy the holidays, and bring your home back on the market mid-January. A huge added bonus if your house is off the market for 45 days, it will come back on the market having “zero” days on the market. This by itself is not a bad reason to take a break, refresh, and re-consider your pricing point in January.
Next Week’s Spoiler’s Alert: The three most important words in real estate now are not: Location, location, location.
Market data referenced in this article comes from The Cromford Report.