Selling your home in the summer

Summer is generally not the ideal time to sell a home in Atlanta. The heat can be oppressive and many folks are off on vacation, so they don’t have their minds on buying a home. This summer may prove to be somewhat of a different story, however.

The lack of inventory we’ve had all during the spring will more than likely have many potential buyers still out there looking. Too, with consumer confidence continuing to rebound, folks may just now be getting comfortable enough to make a move to a new home, and some may want to do this before prices continue to push upward.

The lack of inventory can be an advantage to a seller who needs to sell their home in the summer. In the past, I have told sellers who were thinking about putting their home up for sale in July or August that it may make sense to wait until early fall when there is more buyer activity, but, again, this is shaping up to be a different kind of summer in the Atlanta real estate market. Interest rates are still incredibly low, and there is a lot of pent-up demand for homes.

If you are going to sell your home in the summer, there are a few things that you can do to help make that happen. First and foremost is pricing it accurately. Although that’s always an important factor, an overpriced listing in the middle of the summer with a generally smaller pool of buyers is going to get “stale” very quickly. Even with the low inventory, overpriced listings are not selling. And many of them are running into problems getting appraised for the sale price.

You may have to work harder to keep your property looking fresh in the heat of the summer, but it’s imperative that you do so. That means keeping plants and lawns properly watered and trimmed. Yards can get unruly very quickly in the summer, and the outside of your home is the first impression you are making on a potential buyer. If the home isn’t occupied, make arrangements with someone to take care of the yard for you if you don’t have time to do it yourself.

Another important factor that may seem trivial is keeping the home at a comfortable temperature, even when no one’s there. I know that seems like an awful waste, but I have taken buyers into homes in the summer where they were so uncomfortable that they didn’t want to look at the whole house. The heat can also exacerbate any unpleasant odors. You want potential buyers to feel comfortable spending as much time as necessary to give them the feel of your home. A stifling hot listing is similar to one with a bad smell in it – buyers are turned off, and don’t really give the home serious consideration. They may not even be able to articulate why your home does not make the short list – it just won’t.