Sellers ask, "Should I list my property now? Shouldn't I wait until after the Super Bowl?" In the Menlo Park area and the rest of the mid-Peninsula area, the Super Bowl has been used as the calendar date for the start of the Spring real estate market season.
Actually, I think this past or almost past January has been a good time to list a home for sale. As of today, January 27, 13 homes went pending and 4 additional closed escrow. There are 57 active homes on the market priced from a high of $4,750,000 to a low of $240,000. The buyers I have talked to have been disappointed in the lack of inventory.
The unfortunate thing is that if you are going to put your home on the market successfully, you need plenty of lead time. Calling your agent on Friday and having your home listed on the MLS on Monday is not impossible, but certainly not recommended. If you are thinking about selling your home later this year, now is the time to be talking to your agent and making plans for when and how to market your home to its best advantage.
Your agent should be able to supply you with these kinds of charts to help you decide the best time to market your home. While I would caution you that past performance does not guarantee future success, the market does have a fairly consistent ebb and flow.
The chart shows the relationship of the number of homes for sale to the number of homes sold. My question is whether or not the number will continue to trend down for January. You can see that in January of 2010, there were almost 100 homes for sale and my count for January of this year is 57 today. The number may be somewhat larger depending on how Terradatum counts. By the way, I did ask for permission to print this chart and got it.
Marge Draper, REALTOR
DRE#01202747
KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY MENLO PARK
