Now is the Best Time to Sell Your Home.

sell your home

Thinking you might sell your home this year and questioning when is the best time to sell your home in 2020? Well, now! Home sellers will certainly have the advantage the first half of the year. While we focused on homebuyers last post , this post we put the spotlight on home sellers.
Let’s go back to this chart:

sell your home

In this chart, the blue squares signify the seller’s opportunity. As you can imagine, where the homebuyers had the disadvantage, homes sellers have the advantage. The first row of the chart, “Active Count” shows how many homes are expected to be on the market month by month. January through April have the lowest amount of homes on the market, resulting in a higher demand for homes and thus driving up the prices. However, the active count doesn’t tick up to a high buyer’s advantage until July.

The other advantages that you have selling your home now is how quickly you will be able to sell it. Take a look at column 6, “Average Days on Market” and column 7, “Median Days on Market”. When you sell your home, you can expect to have it under contract and sold very quickly. In fact, column 8, shows that roughly 50% of home sellers that sell their home between April and June can expect it under contract in seven days or less!

Last but not least column 5, “% of Close/List Price”,  shows that people that sell their home between April to June, can expect list price or a bit higher. This is because buyers will compete for you home increasing the sales price. 🙂

So, when is the best time to list your home? February to June is the best time to list your home. These months are truly the best months to sell a home as they result in a perfect scenario for home sellers. They can expect to receive top dollar for their home, go under contract quickly giving the home seller far more negotiating power than any other time of the year.

If you are a Denver home seller, feel free to reach out to Liz for a more detailed analysis of the current real estate market to find out when the best time to sell your home this year.

Liz is  broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.

A visual of what is occurring in the real estate market.

Seasonal Slowdown + More Inventory = Slightly Less of a Seller’s Real Estate Market.

There is a bit of a change in the real estate market in Denver as we start to see more homes on the market. We ended September 2019 with 2,657 homes on the market in Denver while last September 2019 we had 2,378. However, in September we had 1,119 sales while we had 1,032 sales in September 2018. What does this mean? There ARE more homes on the market but there are also more sales. There is still a high demand and now high(er) supply. No, the market isn’t bottoming out, especially with high and consistent demand, however, it does mean there is a change.

Coming off the of the last 5+ years of a very insane (technical term, there) real estate market, this change feels drastic. It can feel like we went from multiple offers, competition, and getting above list price to homes taking longer to sell and actually negotiate, overnight. However, we have seen this shift slowly over the last 18 months. Since this change can provoke feelings of uncertainty and fear, I have found a visual modality often helps explain this change.

This graph shows the number of listings over the last five years. As you can see we have more active listings than we have seen in the last five years. real estate market.

 

Additionally, this graph shows the close price relative to the list price. In past years it was commonplace to receive over list price on a home as multiple offers drew the price up. As you will see, we are starting to see sellers receive less (1-2% less) of list price.

real estate market.

There is certainly a shift occurring in our real estate market and we appear to be heading towards more of a balanced market. Although, right now we have roughly 2 months of inventory on the market. To put it in perspective, for it to be considered a balanced market, we would need 6 months of inventory. Despite rumors, it is certainly not a buyer’s market yet (sorry, buyers!) but seller’s should expect a bit longer for their home sale and to price the home properly and competitively.

 

Transitions: The Good, Bad and Ugly.

transition

Last week I got married, yay! The wedding marked an end of what seemed like a year of transitions. In the last year, we bought a new home which catapulted a number of other events… the sale of one home and turning another home into a rental. Then not being able to rent the home out in the dead of winter and deciding to switch gears and sell the home because this made more sense. Oh, and not to mention, the home we bought needs work, which still hasn’t been done.

Although, two weeks before my wedding, I decided to start renovating my kitchen. So, yes, while we were dealing with last minute wedding details and had family in town, we were having new countertops installed and lived without a faucet for a week (because I had forgotten to order one until the countertops were installed). Needless to say, it was completely unproductive.

Change is really difficult and I saw firsthand how when you are faced with change, your first reaction may not be the most productive. Buying a home, selling a home, moving to a new location, starting a family, divorce and marriage are all considered huge changes in your life and can evoke a wide range of emotions. Anxiety, happiness, fear, threat, guilt, excitement, disillusion and acceptance are just some of the emotions you may feel. Overall, there are three different reactions to change:

Reactive: This is where I reside when I get stressed. People with this reaction make a fast decision while under pressure. Often decisions are made without the necessary information and in a frantic manner. From the outsider, a reactive person looks almost erratic.

Avoidance: Change is resisted and often people remain in denial. Decisions are put off as people start to feel stress. In this stage people often don’t move forward and remain stuck in the face of change. From the outsider, an avoider looks lazy.

Proactive: The most “normal” of reactions. In this state people often do more research, are more deliberate and are not as hasty. People with this reaction focus on what they CAN control, take actions and create positive outcomes.

Big life changes can evoke strange reactions and you should always give yourself some grace. However, there are some very helpful coping mechanisms that can be useful in getting you through difficult transitions. In the next newsletter, we will go over how to alleviate some of these stressors and reactions to change (I will need to research them since I certainly didn’t do a good job this time around in the face of stress!)

 

Liz is  broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.

How To Get Anything Done.

Do you find yourself putting off taking action? This may mean that you are at the cusp of taking a risk and the action is scaring you. It is very typical to stall out as you look a big goal head-on. Although, taking educated risks is the heart of building wealth and the quicker you become comfortable with it, the better off you will be. Here are some tips on how to handle moving forward and taking necessary risks.

  • Make smaller mistakes and then build.This is the best way to get used to making mistakes. Start making decisions that involve a small amount of risk. Since taking the biggest risk of my life and moving to Denver to start a business and finding myself responding to the anxiety and stress of this risk the same way as I always have – with more stress. I have realized there is a lot of value in starting smaller. This year I made a goal of getting better at public speaking path and my first step forward was joining a local Toastmasters and taking advantage of their impromptu speaking in the beginning of the event. You are asked a random question on the spot and you have to learn to answer as clearly and proficiently in two minutes. Joining Toastmasters put me in the position to start working on my public speaking and make plenty of mistakes on the way.
  • Reframe mistakes as lessons. But here is the secret, these mistakes that I was making at Toastmasters, weren’t REALLY mistakes, they were more like learning opportunities over and over. Take the time to learn from these mistakes. In the beginning of Toastmasters, I found myself saying a lot of filler words, such as “um” and self-soothing. Each week, when it was my turn to speak, I made a goal of ONE less “um” as the previous week.
  • Support. Once I got better at the impromptu speaking, I realized I need more help that Toastmasters might be able to offer. It was then that I decided to hire a public speaking coach to offer me individualized help and support. In an addition to a coach, you can ask a mentor, friend or family member to hold you accountable. As a real estate agent, I also find my role is to act as a coach for my clients through the home buying and selling process.
  • Create a hard deadline. With the guidance of my public speaking coach, we chose a date to have my very first speech booked and completed. This helped me stop procrastinating and jump right into public speaking.
  • Check in. The final step would be checking in with yourself. How did that feel? Invigorating? Terrifying? This step ensures that you don’t bite off more than you can take on (something I am notorious at doing examples, include, moving to Denver and starting a business, joining BOTH Toastmasters and a public speaking coach, buying rentals that need work when I have no extra time, the list goes on….).

Challenging yourself is hard and each new level of yourself requires more work and challenges. What risk are you shying away from? There is no risk too small or too big. If you are putting off buying that home, you are luck because I can happily step into the support role for this goal. Start your search here.

Liz is  broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.

The BIGGEST change in the Denver real estate market now.

luxury condos

Have you always dreamed of living in a loft in Downtown Denver? Imagine being close to everything you love – trails, parks, shopping, bars, restaurants, the Rookies and not having to get in the car daily. You will be in the center of it all with the energy of the city zooming by.

For years now Downtown Denver has been near unattainable with very little inventory and laws that made it very expensive for new complexes to be developed. Recently, we saw the laws softened and more being built, adding more condos and lofts to the market.

In addition to more homes being built, metro Denver is starting to see an increase in inventory. According to Denver Metro Association, “metro Denver’s inventory is at it’s highest since 2013”. The rise in inventory is resulting in price reductions and an increase in average days on market.

Can you guess which sector of the market is impacted the most? Condos in Denver priced between 750k – 1 million.. With all the new condos that have been built and resales coming on the market, the high end lofts are taking longer to sell. There is a six month supply of inventory on the market and the average days on market is 58. Compared to last year, that is an increase of 31%.

If you have always wanted a home in the heart of the city, this just might be your time. Interest rates are low and more inventory and lower prices can mean more negotiating power for the buyer. Take a look herefor luxury condos on the market in Denver currently.

 

Liz is  broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway.

fear

I never realized how many conversations I would have about fear once I got into real estate. These conversation are about my own fear and my client’s. For myself, there is a whole lot of fear that peaks its head when you move across country, leave behind a corporate job (ahem, bi-weekly paycheck) and get into real estate in a city that you don’t know anyone. As my business (and myself) have grown, the fear has subsided a bit but if you are living life right and pushing your limits, fear should never fully dissipate.

Fear for my clients can come out at any part of the transaction. Lets admit it, real estate is scary and can evoke a wide array of emotions. In most cases it is one of the biggest purchases that you will make. Maybe this is your first home post divorce. Or maybe, the financial crisis of 2008 still weighs on you and buying a home sounds so scary since you lost your footing in 2008.

Whatever the reason, fear is a very typical emotion to feel whether you are buying or selling a home. For this reason, I find myself talking to a client’s fear a lot. Sometimes the fear needs more facts, a nudge forward or a bit more coddling. Fear has a number of different faces and one of the ways it can present itself is procrastination. If you find yourself constantly putting off that home purchase or sale, the underlying cause may be fear. Here are a few tips on how to overcome that fear and stop procrastinating!

  1. Practice making mistakes. No one wants to make a mistake and certainly not a mistake of buying a pricey home. Consider taking small risks which may result in a mistake. This could be as simple as investing a minimal dollar amount into a stock. See what happens – does it grow or does it lose money?
  2. Reframe mistakes as lessons. Did you end up making a mistake with your chosen investment. No biggie, use it as a learning experience. What could you do differently next time?
  3. Accountability. If you tend to procrastinate, ask someone to hold you accountable. For the goal of owning a home, this person would help keep you on track, make sure you are looking at homes, setting proper expectations, keep you moving toward the goal. Looking for someone to hold you accountable? Consider your real estate agent as your accountability partner.
  4. Create a hard deadline. Give yourself time but also a deadline. This ensures you don’t continue procrastinating.

As interest rates drop (again) and we approach a time in the market where it becomes easier for buyers, you may want to examine if now may be the time to take the plunge into homeownership or moving up. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can be anxiety provoking but keep in mind….

“Acknowledging the unproductive thoughts and ineffective behavior that you’ve tried to ignore can be uncomfortable. But, stepping out of your comfort zone and choosing to proactively address bad habits will skyrocket your ability to create long-lasting change.“