Average Days On Market....Is It A True Indicator?
I get this question all the time and it got me to thinking...Are average days on the market a true indicator? In my opinion no!
Most people when they see that a property was on the market for 400 days that it just wasn't a nice property ot that it was way over priced.....In my opinion that's just not the way we should look at it!
I'm just one of thousands and thousands of real estate agents across the country and if I have underlying circumstances that keep my properties on the market for extended periods them I'm sure every other agent does also!
Key reasons average days on the market is not a true indicator!
- An agent sells a FSBO...puts it in the MLS as sold before print.....it shows up as on the market 1 day!
- You list a property as part of an estate sale....there is a minor involved...you get acceptable offer in a few days but, you have to get the price court approved before you can proceed. If you've ever had one of these you know it can take at least an extra 30 days sometimes to make all this happen.
- You list a home and it goes under contract very soon and set to close in 30 days. The buyers are approved, all inspections go well and the appraisal come in over asking price......TWO DAYS before closing you get a call that the bank had ordered a desk review on the appraisal and it came in $50,000...YES $50,000 under the one that just came in 2 weeks earlier. Now we are 2 weeks past our agreed upon closing date....the buyers are going through another local bank because the appraiser who did the desk review totally botched the review up.
- You're seller accepts an offer on their home contingent on the buyers home selling and closing within 90 days....Then the buyers home doesn't sell and you put your sellers home back active and have to start over!
- You have a buyer and a contract on a home....everything goes as planned....the loan officer tells you everything's good the whole way through up until 3 days before closing....this loan officer even encouraged my buyers to buy some of the furniture before we closed....then 3 days before closing she calls and says it's not going to close....
- I had two condos listed and had a buyer (Paying cash and wanting to close asap) within just a few weeks...it was an estate sale with a minor involved so we had to go to juvenile court and have the prices approved...then the HOA decided that they only wanted them sold as owner occupied....the buyer was buying them to rent as one was already rented to a lady who had been there 20 some years. To make a long story short....It took over a year to close these units...6 court appearances later... we won...BUT in the meantime....1. The buyer passed away 1 month before the judge ruled in our favor. 2. The seller spent $7,000 in repairs he wouldn't have had to spend if it had closed as per the contract. 3. The seller had to pay $15,000 in attorney fees to fight it. SO....after getting them under contract it took 14 months to get them closed! Luckily the buyers son continued with the purchase when his dad passed away!
The above situations are just a few of the reason I personally feel that you can't put much weight on the average days on market! There are just so many factors that make this number so unreliable!
It's just not a true indication of the properties themselves as a whole!
I think the best way to answer this question is.....I personally don't think it has anything to do with the homes in particular.....it has everything to do with particular situations that we will never know of! What I'm trying to say is that when you see a property that's been on the market for a long time just look further than the days on market.....you just never know why!
Just something to think about!
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