Selling and buying and moving to another house can be challenging any time… but in 2021 it is harder than ever because of the severe shortage of homes for sale. Inventory is the lowest in recorded history but sales continue to increase.
Actual number of showings is about the same as last year, but with half the inventory that means about twice the number of showings for every property. Complicate that with no overlapping showings because of Covid-19 and you get a crazy real estate buying frenzy!
I have a client who contacted me last fall that she planned to sell her current house and buy a bigger one this year. We crunched numbers and looked at some homes for sale at that time and decided she needed to sell first to get the new home they wanted.
We started by meeting with our stager to create a plan to get her home ready to sell.
They decided to spend the winter months getting her house ready, then accept an offer for the sale of her house and search in earnest to find a new home.
Well, it didn’t turn out that way.
By early February her house was about ready to sell and we decided to go out and look at a few houses to get a sense of what they could find for their next home. Inventory was even lower than it was when we looked at the end of last year, and we found only a couple houses to visit. One of them was perfect for them in so many ways that they decided to make an offer even though her house wasn’t sold. Of course there were multiple offers so they didn’t have a chance with an offer contingent on the sale of her house. So they pulled out all the stops, getting temporary help from family and support from friends to make a winning offer.
Still reeling from the whirlwind weekend of having their offer accepted for their new home, they did the final steps in getting her current home ready to sell… and last weekend she had 52 showings and 20 offers on her home! Yes, the market is insane!!
She hung the SOLD sign on Monday and closings happen in the next months.
Mission accomplished, with both the house they bought and the house she sold selling for significantly more than list price, balancing each other out!!
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – shensrud@homesmsp.com
