A home for sale usually takes between 55 to 70 days to sell on average. This includes the 25 days on the market and 30-45 days until closing. However, the exact time to sell a property is dependent on several things like the following:

• The time of year you have listed. It is usually faster to sell in the spring or early fall.

• The local housing market condition. Faster sales usually happen when there is a low inventory but with high demand.

• The home’s condition. If it’s in a great condition, it may sell faster than a home that needs more work done.

• How your buyer is financing. When a buyer needs a mortgage, it may slow down the process but when the buyer will pay using cash, it may take only around two weeks.

Getting a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is where you should start when deciding the price of your home for sale. You have the option to do this yourself using an online valuation calculator or get a real estate agent to do it for you. To get a CMA, the agent will find similar homes in the neighborhood (same square footage and same number of bedroom and bath) and compare the price of recently sold or currently listed properties.

If you decide to sell your home by yourself without an agent (for-sale-by-owner), consider hiring a professional appraiser who is an expert at pricing homes.

A home’s market value and assessed value are determined by different factors. The market value is affected by the sellers and buyers while the assessed value is calculated by a professional appraiser.

In a seller’s market, your house’s market value may be higher than the assessed value. This is because buyers may be willing to pay more than the actual price because of low inventory.

In a buyer’s market, buyers may put lower offers than the assessed value because of competition from other sellers.

Yes. You can negotiate your realtor’s fees. It’s typically 6% and divided between the buyer’s agent (3%) and the seller’s agent (3%). The services provided by the agents can also be factors during negotiations.

Early spring and summer, especially June, is a great time to sell a home.

Based on research, home sales in the months of May, June, July, and August constitute 40% of the total sales volume yearly.  

This is a personal choice. Having a new home ready means you can move out whenever you want to. Thus, giving you peace of mind. However, you might get stuck on having to pay 2 mortgages if selling your current home takes more time than expected.

As the seller, you are responsible to pay the agent through your sale profits. You will also pay the buyer’s agent’s commission. You don’t need to write checks or bring lots of cash during the closing. A closing agent will help you distribute the funds when you close. The escrow money from the buyer will be on hold and will be used to pay the agents. An escrow is a third party account where the money is kept until the time of the distribution.

Sellers should usually pay around 8–10% of the total sale price in closing costs wherein 5–6% of that is the realtor commission.

The amount you get when you sell your property is dependent on several factors, but usually you should expect somewhere between 90 to 92% of the sale price. 5-6% realtor commissions as well as 2-4% in fees and taxes are included. If you need to pay your old mortgage and/or agreed to pay the buyer’s closing costs (2-5% of sale price), you will get a lesser amount. 

You should consider paying for the buyer’s closing costs if it allows the buyer to make a better offer or if it helps to close sooner.  If your home has been listed for a while, offering to cover the buyer’s closing costs may attract more offers and could speed up the process.