When Is The Best Time To Sell My Home?

When is the best time to sell your Glendale, CA home? You are probably thinking of waiting until spring to put your home on the market. Spring, after all, is peak selling season in our area. Would it be unreasonable to imagine that you might “think about it” so long that the peak selling season passes you by?

DIGGS  breaks down the steps you need to sell your home in our latest webinar. While we recorded this webinar in 2019, the principles apply to any market. Scroll to the bottom of this article to get the link for the full video.

Determine your target move out date

The best time to sell your home might have more to do with your target move out date. Maybe you have to be out of your house by a certain date to get the kids registered in their new school. Or perhaps you want to be in your new place when their summer break starts. Whether your move out date is flexible or set in stone, you need to figure this date out first and then work backward to set the rest of your timeline.

Create your “Best Time To Sell” timeline

Working backward from your target move out date you can calculate the best time to sell your home. You can then set a launch date for putting your house on the market. If you need to be out by June 30 for example, your timeline would look like this:

6/30 move out

5/31 open escrow (for a 30 day escrow)

5/28 accept offer with a few days cushion to negotiate terms.

5/9 the property goes on the MLS to allow for enough time to have open houses and get buyers in the door.

Did you miss the best time to sell?

You might be a little worried because it feels like the velocity in the market is slowing down. Like someone is letting their foot up off the gas, but not necessarily slamming on the brakes. If this trend continues you may need to pad all of your target dates. In our example timeline above the best time to sell your home would be in mid-April.

Before the “For Sale” sign goes up

You can sell your house in any condition, but if you want top dollar and to sell your home as quickly as possible, you may need to take on a few projects to get your house show ready. At minimum give yourself time to declutter, remove all personal items like family photos (no matter how cute you look) and clean like the most judgmental mother in law in the world is coming over.

A good real estate professional will be able to tell you exactly what you need to do before your house hits the market (it might be less than you think). Give yourself about a month before your best time to sell date to get your house in tip top shape. Longer if you plan to take on special projects.

Put your agent to work

Identify and hire your listing agent well before your best time to sell. Your agent will need time to have professional photos taken and processed (ours take about a week) and time to then take those photos and create beautiful marketing materials (another week). Your house needs to be photo ready at least two weeks before it goes on the market.

Hired your agent at least six weeks before your launch date. Give yourself a couple of weeks to interview local agents and find the right one. This means if you want to be out the door by the end of June (sticking with the above timeline) you need to interview agents in mid-February.

Holy Crow I didn’t know it took that long!!!

Did this timeline clear things up for you? Or are you panicking? Watch the full video below to get even more information. And when you are ready give us a shout.