Real estate may be about location, but it is also about timing, and spring, traditionally the busiest time of the year for home sales, is just around the corner.
There is a good reason for that, especially in the D.C. market, and the best month to list in the market to get the bestselling price is May.
“It’s the best time for people to move. If you have a family, if you have kids in school, it is a lot easier to start looking in spring to start that process off so you’re moving during the summer months,” Joshua Clark, with real estate listing firm Zillow, told WTOP.
“Another factor that’s key in D.C. is the fact that it is a pretty big college town, so you have seasonal housing shifts that are going to be changing around that time too.”
Zillow data show a late-May listing in the D.C.-area market typically brings a $4,400 premium on the median price of a home.
If selling quickly is the main goal, then late April could be a better time to list. Homes in the D.C. market listed then have traditionally sold nine days faster on average, because those buyers are trying to beat the spring rush of buyers and the competition.
The day of the week your online listing goes live also makes a difference: Zillow says the best day to list is Thursday.
“If you post on a Thursday, you are much more likely one of those new listings when people start searching, maybe on a Friday after happy hour, Saturday and Sunday when they have time off. A listing that goes live just before the weekend can be most beneficial in getting you the most views on your home,” Clark said.
Tuesday is the worst day to make a listing go live, Zillow says.
If you’re planning to sell this spring, now is the time to start getting ready. A Zillow survey of recent sellers says the most common regret is that they didn’t start the process sooner.
Almost three-quarters of sellers make at least one home improvement during the selling process, and at least a quarter of those said their projects took longer than expected.
