Over the past couple of years, homes have been selling for all time highs in record amounts of time thanks to employers embracing remote work, and historically low interest rates. Although mortgage rates are expected to rise this year, HomeLight notes in their Top Agent Insights For New Year 2022 report that early 2022 will have higher activity than normal from buyers purchasing properties they normally wouldn’t because of competition.
In Q4 2021 94% of agents reported that their territories were a seller’s market and only 4% of agents reported that available housing inventory was higher than expected. Those aspects alone mean that even with rising rates, home prices should remain relatively high throughout the coming year.
If you’re looking to profit from these trends, here’s a couple of tips to help you navigate the home selling process.
Know what your home with a free home appraisal
If you’re not sure if putting your home on the market is worth the effort, you can get a free home appraisal to determine your home’s value. Free home appraisal tools leverage automated valuation models that consider information from sources such as county auditor and tax assessor records, user-submitted data (such as information on home improvements), and MLS listings and sales data from comparable homes nearby.
While free home appraisal solutions are a great way for homeowners to gauge what their home is worth, it’s not a full substitute for a professional appraisal because the estimates are just estimates. If you put your home on the market, a professional appraiser is needed to determine a custom quote based on the exact measurements and condition of your property.
Work with an expert to get your home sold
After determining your home’s worth and deciding to put your home on the market, it’s time to enlist the help of a realtor to help you navigate the home selling process. The great thing about real estate agents is that they’re paid on commission so homeowners don’t have to worry about hefty upfront costs. Instead the agent is only successful when the homeowner is successful.
The best time to speak with a real estate agent is around three months prior to selling your home, since it gives you and your agent time to prepare for a sale and accurately gauge the best price for the property at that point in time.
Since every agent is different, it’s best to interview a few and use the meeting time to evaluate the agents’ knowledge of your area, their working style, and more. You’ll also want to focus on the agents’ statistics such as their average sale-to-list price ratio (the percent of the asking price that a home sells for), the average number of days their homes are on the market before a sale, and the number and type of transactions that they have had in the past.
By focusing on these core bits of information, you can make the process of choosing an agent less overwhelming.