When is the best time to sell your home?

By Patricia Nugent

As Tom Petty once sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

And so it goes for real estate. When is the best time to sell? Should you wait until spring?

Throughout the year, we’ve run stories exploring “right-sizing” as opposed to downsizing and covered all the considerations to think about when folks decide what the next phase in their housing life will be. We’ve answered the “what,” but not the “when.” One of our local experts is Denise Zervos, who, along with her husband, Mark, heads up The Neighborhood Experts at Platinum Real Estate.

She points out that now that the holidays are here, aging baby boomers might have family sitting around their dinner table, but they’ll soon be gone, leaving them to wonder if it isn’t time to move into a better sized home.

“Although traditional thinking is to wait until spring to sell your house, there’s a lot going on right now,” she says. “Here in Lake County, we are dealing with a sellers’ market. The median average time a home will be on the market is 42 days (although our team has been experiencing much shorter time periods). Our challenge is not knowing what will be happening in the spring.”

Yes, she says, there might be more buyers in spring, but they will be pickier and more astute in their pricing. Interest rates are still low and economic indicators are currently still good, but there is talk of an impending recession.

“People are concerned about the economy, and I am frequently asked about its effect on whether or not people should think about selling their house now versus waiting,” she says. “Although I’m not a financial analyst, I have been in the real estate industry for 20-plus years. Our last recession was tied into the housing market, but prior ones were not, and the next one might not be, either.”

She explains the bottom line is, the best time to sell anything is when demand is high and supply is limited, which is right now.

Platinum Real Estate has seven offices in Northeast Ohio and five in Southern Florida. For a confidential appointment or to get more information, call 216-990-2100 or 440-974-SALE and visit YourNeighborhoodExpert.com to request the free checklist, “What to Consider when Right-Sizing Your Next Home.”