It would be great is some readers would post their experiece during the real estate process compared to the poll results.
When Sellers Decide To Sell, They Find Agents Quickly, Says HouseValues’ Newest Survey says a recent post on Realty Times.
For sellers, the survey revealed that:
Before even thinking about selling, consumers can take up to four years subconsciously collecting experiences related to their home, including current and future desired requirements, features and amenities. These experiences compound to bring the home sale to the forefront of consciousness, triggering an active research phase.
Once the research phase has been initiated, it takes sellers an average of 9.3 months to sell — 5.5 months in a pre-research phase, 1.4 months for the active research phase, and 2.4 months for the active selling phase.
The majority of sellers — 52.1 percent — take only one day to select their agent.
For buyers, the survey found that:Buyers, like sellers, often take up to four years collecting experiences related to their current home, and potential future needs.
It takes buyers nearly a year and a half — 16.4 months on average — to buy from the time they begin thinking about a purchase.
Once the research phase for buyers has been initiated, it takes an average of 16.7 months to buy — 7.1 months in the pre-research phase, 5.5 months in the active research phase, and 4.1 months in the active buying phase.
44 percent of buyers take more than six months thinking about desirable homes and neighborhoods before actually searching for listings. The average buyer then spends more than four months searching for homes.
First-time buyers take an average of 20.5 months on the entire home-buying process.
61.8 percent of buyers select their real estate agent within just one to three days.
I know from our website stats that a buyer, once they have contacted us through email or through our website as a registered user, the process generally takes less than six months though some clients have looked through over 2000 listings since registering.
A few months ago I wrote The Questions You Should Ask Your Realtor and Our Answers. Every agent is different. Choose wisely!
Does the changing real estate market — particularly the saturation of supply and the slowdown effects that rising prices and mortgage rates are finally having on demand — affect any of these consumer decisions? How about agent decisions as to where to spend their property advertising time and money?
I just recently had a client that had been working with a friend who was a Realtor for a couple of months. They had made offers on two or three homes, missing out each time they were told because they were 100% financing in a price point where that is rare (mid $300,000). They started to wonder if their Realtor was missing the boat in some way and ended up looking at property and writing an offer with me. They got their offer accepted and then (long story short) got their offer accepted on the second property they wanted. They will close this week on property #2… the dream home they have wanted for years. Although statistically we are seeing a slowdown, in reality, those houses that are priced well and look nice are selling quickly often with multiple offers. Ask your Realtor what they will do to insure that your offer has the best chance of being accepted. Even without a large cash downpayment, there are ways of making an offer attractive to a seller.