Things you can learn from your neighbor’s home sale
Being aware of what’s happening in your neighborhood is always a good idea. Keeping up with nearby sales transactions is also very important – even if you are not selling your home currently – especially if the listing is comparable to what you own. Knowing the approximate current market value of your home is obviously good-to-have information no matter what.
Obtaining information about a neighbor’s home may help you make a host of decisions. Perhaps you were waiting until “the market comes back up,” or conversely, sales prices are starting to fall from previous high values. In either case, the more data you can collect, the better informed you will be regarding decisions relating to selling or holding on to your property. Again, it makes sense to compare apples to apples. Make a list of all your amenities and compare them to the recently sold neighbor’s house. Similar square footage? Similar landscape / outside features? Similar interior layout?
So, how to obtain helpful information? The following is a suggested short list of methods and/or processes aiding in the collection of vital, comparative home data.
Make sure to attend an open house
Hopefully you are on good terms anyway, but at the very least make a cordial visit to any neighbors owning comparable homes when they are having an open house in conjunction with listing their property. Without being overly nosy, take inventory of exterior and interior amenities and features and compare them to what you have outside and inside, giving you a realistic, market-value estimate of your home if you plan to list in the near-distant future. If the listing has been on the market for a few weeks, subtly ask your neighbors what kind of feedback they are getting on the overall impression of listing. Again, without being too overtly meddlesome, ask if certain fixtures, designs or furnishings have been desirable or troublesome for prospective buyers. Obviously, if you get any usable information that makes practical and/or financial sense, make the changes as soon as possible before placing your home on the market. In many cases, relatively small changes and/or additions, such as accent pieces, fire pits, or outside seating, will not cost an exorbitant amount, yet will add buyer appeal and lead to hopefully more aggressive offers when you are ready to sell.
How long will a home in your neighborhood take to sell?
Here again, as the notable adage goes, “the devil is in the details.” If your neighbor’s house is on the market for an extended period of time, try to find out why the listing is not moving. Is there something outside or inside the home that is turning off buyers? If so, do you have similar circumstances? Or perhaps, the issue behind a dearth of offers is far more obvious, the price is too high in the current market. Ultimately, try to get to the underlying issues. Ask your neighbors candidly if the have been able to come to any conclusions while trying to find a resolution for the increasing number of days on the market. And, when the home finally sells, make sure to note the final sales price, what the home was originally listed for, the timing and amount of any reductions your neighbors were offering, and total days on the market compared to other similar listings made available and sold in the same time frame.
When to sell
In the home sales arena, in the simplest form, there are two diametrically opposing outcomes.
The neighbor’s house is priced competitively and the property sells in a rapid fashion or the price is higher than buyers in the market will respond to. Again, in either case, learn from your neighbor’s trials and tribulations. If the comparable house sold in a relative short time for a competitive market price, perhaps now is the optimal time to put your home on the market. Conversely, if the neighbor’s listing did not move in a reasonable amount of time, then logic dictates holding off putting your house on the market and waiting for a more opportune time. It is probably a good idea to add to the old adage of the importance of “location, location, location”… the critical significance of market timing in relation to a listing.
Take a look at the bigger picture
Many neighborhoods take on distinct personalities of their own over time. So, you may be very versed in the nuances of your neighborhood; nevertheless, do the homework via Internet searches that will give you a distinctly accurate picture of the perception and marketability of your neighborhood. For example, is your neighborhood perceived as being in a strong school district or are there desirable recreational activities nearby? Or perhaps, is your neighborhood known as being up-and-coming for young professionals or more as a destination for retirees? Whatever the case, having the information in hand should not only enable you to put your property on the market at the appropriate time and listed at the optimal price, it should also highly increase the probability that your listing will sell for your original asking price in a practical amount of time. Certainly, it makes logical sense to be proactive and share any and all pertinent information you accumulate with your chosen real estate agent before you list.