Why Days On Market Matters To Houston Home Buyers
Here's How To Avoid Getting Stuck In The Market.
The amount of days a property is listed for sale is also known as DOM or "days on the market." DOM typically relies on location, trends, and how the home is priced and promoted.
Buyers know how long a property has been on the market, influencing their behavior. They look at the number of DOMs as a trigger for possible disadvantages the house carries. Whether it is due to your listing price or home condition, a higher DOM is a caution for many Houston home buyers.
Related resources:
- Top 9 Houston Home Selling Mistakes
- Top 10 Home Staging Ideas To Raise Home Value
- Houston Properties Marketing Platform | Sell Your Home Fast For More Money
“So impressed with Houston Properties Team and Ashley Tilton!!! We had been sitting on the market for close to 4 months and after switching to Ashley, we had a contract in 12 days. Ashley was amazing from start to finish. We moved from Houston to Magnolia and she drove out to our home to discuss listing our Houston home. She assisted us with staging, was available to meet CenterPoint at the house for us so that we didn't have to make the drive in and was always available to answer any questions we had during the process. I highly recommend them!” - Melissa (Google Review)
Table of Contents
- What’s the Average Days on the Houston Market?
- 4 Tips to Prevent Higher Days on the Market
- What to Do if Your House Is Still Stuck on the Market?
- The Best Houston Realtor to Sell Your Home
What’s the Average Days on the Houston Market?
"Houston Properties took the worry and guess-work out of selling our house. They had recommendations for everything to make this house ready and appealing. Their attention to detail is unsurpassed. The way that our house was marketed made us want to buy it again ourselves. Yolanda Ames was kind, respectful, personable, knowledgeable, and responsive. She guided us through everything" - Rebecca (Google review)
As of September 2022, the average days a house spends on the Houston market is 46 days. This number was 39% higher five years ago, reflecting the city's seller market in the past years.
However, what's true in one place may not necessarily be true in another. The Houston housing market is hyper-local. You must first know your local context to understand DOM better.
For example, the average DOM at West University is 72 days compared to 25 days in Pearland. This average DOM is one of the essential metrics to identify the current housing market trend. You need to get the most targeted set of DOMs to price your home appropriately.
Home sellers don't want a drawn-out selling process. This is especially true in this market, where buyers are wary of properties that have been actively listed for a while. To increase your odds of a faster home sale, working with Houston's best Realtors can help immensely.
Here are a few tips to sell your home quickly and help you get past the challenges unique to Houston's property market.
4 Tips to Prevent Higher Days on the Market
"The Houston Properties Team is fantastic! I found the team through their highly-informative website, guides, and resources to the Houston area as we prepared to relocate halfway across the country. After reaching out, we were lucky enough to gain Kim Vargas as our realtor. She made our home purchase and move as seamless as she possibly could. If we needed support on anything, she jumped right in! Her market knowledge and expertise helped guide us and ensured we made a sound decision on our home purchase. We can’t thank her and the Houston Properties Team enough!" - Rachel, Google Review
Tip #1: Get a Pre-listing Inspection
First, you must get a pre-listing inspection to know the current condition of your property. An inspector will check areas with health and safety risks in and out of your house. This is a priority, especially if you're selling an older home.
Here are some of the pre-listing inspections' primary areas of focus:
- Plumbing
- Insulation
- Electrical
- Any areas within the house that are not visibly seen.
After the inspection, provide a copy of the inspection report for the buyer and their agent to review. It will help your buyers identify the property's actual condition and recent upgrades.
A pre-listing inspection will give you exact knowledge of your home's current condition. It will help you set a correct price and lower the risk of a higher DOM.
Tip #2: Price Your House Correctly
You must price your property correctly to prevent a higher DOM. Home sellers usually make one initial mistake: overpricing a house without a realistic idea of its worth.
Listings priced 2.2% higher and active for more than 90 days are sold for 1.3% less than the average price. The worst-performing homes are overpriced by 10% or more. Overpriced homes are challenging to sell. Aside from the appraisal, you need a good amount of research to price your home correctly.
Houston's best Realtors use local market data for comparative market analysis. It includes the prices of other homes in the neighborhood, known as "comps." Maximizing this data is vital to see the home's ideal price.
Typically, your property will get stuck in the market if it is priced higher than the competition in the area. Houston's Realtors provide sellers with a price comparison report of similar neighborhood listings. If your home has the highest price, they will kindly ask you to reduce it.
To know more about home pricing mistakes, see Top 9 Houston Home Selling Mistakes.
Tip #3: Prepare Your House for Sale
Home staging plays a significant role in achieving a lower DOM. Buyers will see your home as theirs in the future, and proper home staging shows its best qualities.
That's why we do everything to help sellers perfectly stage their homes. Usually, we reach out to stagers to coordinate with the seller for home staging services. The service is confidential between the two parties.
Staging starts by utilizing neutral colors and natural light. It also includes decluttering to feature storage space. Lastly, using props to showcase the buyer's future home setting.
Home staging is vital but not the only thing to remember when preparing your house for sale. A house's DOM can also be affected by cosmetic repairs and cleaning that are forgotten over time. This is true, especially in the current fast-moving real estate market.
Proper staging, cosmetic repairs, and cleaning are all needed to sell your house quickly. It is one of the best steps to reach the top dollar for your home. To get more information about home staging, see Top 10 Home Staging Ideas To Raise Home Value.
Tip #4: Consider Strategic Marketing
Your listing is no exception in need of effective marketing techniques. Using the right strategies could be the factor for a higher or lower DOM. The Houston Properties Team sells 4.3% faster and 7.2% more using every possible marketing approach.
Social media and photography are the most effective marketing resources we regularly use. Make sure to prepare your home and its surroundings before the photoshoot.
You must also go beyond social media and utilize online marketing as much as possible. You can use various options, from Facebook and flyers to email promotion. Using several channels to market your home will increase your chances of selling it fast.
Avoiding mistakes is the main factor for our success. We follow a 152-step marketing checklist to keep track of every detail. To know more about the selling mistakes you should avoid, see Top 9 Houston Home Selling Mistakes.
What to Do if Your House Is Still Stuck on the Market?
"We could not have asked for a simpler or more enjoyable home buying experience. Not only did we love the realtors that we personally interacted with, but we had a whole team of support at Houston properties. Everyone was very professional and friendly and made sure we were always up to speed. 10/10 would recommend!" - Michelle (Google Review)
Suppose the other houses in your area sell faster than yours, don't fret. In this case, you need to make a few adjustments and consider the following:
Put Yourself in Your Buyer’s Shoes
A house with a higher DOM will likely concern potential buyers, given how homes are quickly selling nowadays. Doing a background check next might be helpful if you've done everything to ensure your house's condition.
A factor beyond your control could be causing your house to get stale. Use public records of area crime statistics, flooding reports, and the like. Identifying this factor and properly disclosing it could solve your problems.
A competent Realtor will provide regular feedback on a buyer's impressions through open houses. There's always a reason why a property sits longer on the market: the challenge is in finding it out. Once you have the data, plan on how to fix it with your agent.
Here's What You Need to Do
The Houston real estate market will always have the final say, no matter how you feel about your listing. That's why it is vital to do everything you can to make it appealing to buyers.
Even if you disagree, the best action is to take the advice of one of Houston's trusted top-performing agents. You'll get advice on repairs, lawn maintenance, and home staging with the idea of a new family moving in.
Houston's top real estate team, Houston Properties Team, has years of experience selling homes and will help you get your property off the market. If you want a free value estimator for your house, see Houston Home Value Estimator, or Contact us to get personal advice on buying or selling your home.
The Best Houston Realtor to Sell Your Home
The Houston Properties Team has a well-defined structure based on the individual strengths of each member. Each member is a specialist in their role – which is why our homes sell faster and for more money than average.
Paige Martin, Broker Associate with Keller Williams Realty, and the Houston Properties Team are ranked among the top residential Realtors in the world.
They have been featured on TV and in dozens of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Reuters, Fox News in the Morning, Money Magazine, Houston Business Journal, Houstonia, and Houston Chronicle.
Paige Martin was just ranked as the #5 agent in the world with Keller Williams, completing over $1 Billion in Houston residential real estate sales.
Recent awards include:
– 2022: #1 Residential Real Estate Team by Sales Volume, Houston Business Journal
– 2021: Best Real Estate Teams in America, RealTrends.com
– 2021: Top 100 Women Leaders in Real Estate of 2021
– 2021: America’s Top 100 Real Estate Agents
– 2021: Top Real Estate Team (Houston Properties Team), Houston Business Journal
– 2021: Best Houston Real Estate Team, Best of Reader’s Choice
– 2021: Top Real Estate Team (Houston Properties Team), Houston Business Journal
– 2021: #1 Real Estate Team, Keller Williams Memorial
– 2020: America’s Best Real Estate Teams, Best of America Trends
– 2020: Best Houston Real Estate Team, Best of Reader’s Choice
– 2020: Top Real Estate Team (Houston Properties Team), Houston Business Journal
– 2020: #6 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Worldwide
– 2020: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Texas (Top Keller Williams Realtor)
– 2020: #1 Real Estate Team, Keller Williams Memorial
- 2019: Top Residential Realtors in Houston, Houston Business Journal
- 2019: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2019: #5 Individual Agent, KW Worldwide
- 2019: #1 Individual Agent, KW Texas
- 2018: #5 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Worldwide
- 2018: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Texas
- 2018: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Houston
- 2018: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2018: Top 25 Residential Realtors in Houston, Houston Business Journal
- 2018: Texas’ Most Influential Realtors
- 2017: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Texas
- 2017: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Houston
- 2017: #10 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Worldwide
- 2017: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2017: Top 25 Residential Realtors in Houston, Houston Business Journal
- 2017: Texas’ Most Influential Realtors
- 2016: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Texas
- 2016: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Houston
- 2016: #20 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Worldwide
- 2016: Texas’ Most Influential Realtors
- 2016: Top 25 Residential Realtors in Houston, HBJ
- 2016: Five Star Realtor, Featured in Texas Monthly
- 2016: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2015: #9 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, United States
- 2015: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Texas
- 2015: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams, Houston
- 2015: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2015: Top 25 Residential Realtors in Houston, HBJ
- 2015: Five Star Realtor, Texas Monthly Magazine
- 2014: America’s Best Real Estate Agents, RealTrends.com
- 2014: #1 Individual Agent, Keller Williams Memorial
...in addition to over 318 additional awards.
Paige also serves a variety of non-profits, and civic and community boards. She was appointed by the mayor of Houston to be on the downtown TIRZ board.
Benefits Of Working With The Houston Properties Team
Our team, composed of distinguished and competent Houston luxury realtors, has a well-defined structure based on the individual strengths of each member.
We find the team approach as the most effective way to sell homes. We have dedicated people doing staging, marketing, social media, open houses, and showings. Each Houston Properties Team member is a specialist in their role—which is why our homes sell faster and for more money than average.
The benefits of working with a team include:
- the ability to be in two or three places at one time; a member can handle showings, while another answer calls
- collective time and experience of members
- targeted advice and marketing of agent expert in your area
- competitive advantage by simply having more resources, more ideas, and more perspectives
- a “checks and balances” system; selling and buying a home in Houston is an intensely complex process
- more people addressing field calls and questions from buyers and agents to facilitate a faster, successful sale
- efficient multi-tasking; one agent takes care of inspections and repair work, while another agent focuses on administrative details
- multiple marketing channels using members’ networks
- constant attention: guaranteed focus on your home and your transaction
- lower risk for mistakes. Multiple moving parts increase oversights. A team approach handles these “parts” separately
- flexibility in negotiation and marketing
- better management of document flow
- increased foot traffic through more timely and effective showing schedule coordination; and
- increased sphere of influence and exposure to more potential buyers.
To meet all the award-winning members of the Houston Properties Team, please go here.
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