With home values rising and sellers snatching top dollar for their humble abodes, it can be mighty tempting to put your house up on the market.
How do you know when you are ready to take that step? Here, we go over 3 signs that might be telling you it’s time to sell.
1. The local market is in your favor
The first and most obvious sign that now might be a good time to sell is if it is a seller’s market. This means that demand for homes is so high that buyers are rushing and competing for property.
Here are some key indicators you may be in a seller’s market:
- Price per square foot in increasing
- The time a listing is active on the market is decreasing
- Inventory on the market is lower than usual
- You start receiving mail from companies asking to buy your home
2. You can stand to gain a nice profit
A good place to start in order to get a general idea of what your home is worth is to utilize online tools such as our Home Value Report.
This report takes the address of the property you wish to sell and runs a Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA. A CMA is a side-by-side comparison of homes for sale and homes that have recently sold in the same neighborhood and price range.
This information is further sorted by data such as type of home, number of bedrooms, number of baths, lot size, neighborhood, property condition and features, and many other factors.
The purpose is to show estimated market value, based on what other buyers and sellers have determined through past sales, pending sales, and homes recently put on the market.
This report will even tell you the average number of days on market for the sold homes in your neighborhood.
Also, keep in mind that a listing agent will be able to provide a more accurate and in-depth market analysis for you.
3. The house you are in is not the one
Maybe you are looking to upsize or downsize. Or maybe you are having financial difficulties, a change in the neighborhood has occurred, or maybe you’re just not as in love with the house as you once thought.
However, it is important to keep in mind where you are moving to next. If you are transitioning to a lower-cost metro, then you should be fine.
Be careful in looking at the numbers if you plan on staying in the same area. You may not be able to move into anything nicer than where you currently were living.
This tactic works best if the profit you make from the sale is significant, otherwise, it will get eaten up by closing costs and capital gains tax. This means any equity you have accumulated from the sale is subject to taxation as ordinary income, according to the IRS.
Here is some more information on Buying and Selling At The Same Time.
