Lake Michigan may be covered in ice. Blustery winds may be howling down your street. You may be able to see your breathe every time you step outside.
But make no mistake… In Chicago, the spring market is already heating up.
If you want to get your home ready for the market’s springtime peak, the time to prepare is now. Here are a few things to keep in mind…
The Key Spring Benchmark? The Super Bowl
There’s a reason why our own Jason Finn says that you should list your home the day after the Super Bowl. As we’ve noted before, the big game may just be the single most important milestone of the real estate year.
Why? Well, its position on the calendar – smack-dab in early February – perfectly coincides with the start of the spring season for real estate. For buyers and sellers alike, one of the most fallow periods of the year is the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. People are busy, weather conditions are bad, and general interest in diving into a major transaction tends to dwindle.
Once we make it through the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and the grim days of January, however, the market begins to regain its energy – right around the time when those championship rings are passed out.
Even better? By preparing now, you’ll get a jump on other families planning to list their homes in the near future, many of whom won’t get started until spring hits in earnest. That’s what we call playing defense.
Prep Your Home for Listing
For better and for worse, selling a home is a process that takes time and effort. As a seller, you’ll want to:
- focus on getting into the right mindset for a successful sale
- establish a relationship with a real estate broker or team
- research the state of the market for your area
- get your home ready for sale through staging and depersonalization
Taken together, none of these steps are too much to bear. But when you procrastinate, the little things can pile up, resulting in a more stressful – and, perhaps, less lucrative – sale.
Instead of waiting, get a jump on all of these action items now, while you have time and energy to spare. It could make all the difference for the sale of your home down the line, when the frigid days of winter give way to the sultry spring season.
Price Your Home Right from the Start
The longer a home sits on the market, the more you’ll have to pay in carrying costs, such as mortgage payments and upkeep. And, even worse, the longer your property lingers, the less attractive it will be to potential buyers – making you responsible for those carrying costs even longer.
It’s a vicious cycle – but it’s one that can be avoided altogether. How? It all comes down to setting the right price from the beginning.
Setting the right price – one that won’t have to be unceremoniously “chopped” to remain competitive when the market heats up – is vital to a successful sale. And the most important thing you can do to establish the right price from the word “go” is to bring on a qualified real estate professional with experience in your market.
The right real estate professional for your sale will use a wide variety of data to help determine the price point for your home, including market analysis, neighborhood records, and a solid understanding of the housing market both at large and in your specific area. They’ll be open, communicative, realistic, and fully able to articulate why they’ve determined a price for your home.
That’s where the Real Group team comes in! Our experienced brokers know everything there is to know about carrying off a successful sale in Chicagoland, and we are typically able to sell our clients' homes at within a few percentage points of list price, generally above the MLS average.
Ready to understand why timing, season, neighborhood, and current market conditions all matter in the sale of your home? Ready to get started now? Drop us a line today to get the conversation started!
