The Open Door Auctions team recently did a little research to figure out what the average length of time it takes to sell your house in various cities/areas around Southern California: Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernadino, and Riverside. The big picture view is that, if you thought the average time spent on market was high in 2010, this year the numbers look even worse for sellers.
Here are the details:
Orange County
2010 - 90 days on market
2011 - 114 days on market
San Diego
2010 - 95 days on market
2011 - 115 days on market
Los Angeles
2010 - 70 days on market
2011 - 91 days on market
Riverside
2010 - 45 days on market
2011 - 88 days on market
San Bernadino
2010 - 58 days on market
2011 - 81 days on market
What can we learn from this mess, besides the fact that Orange County and San Diego are hellacious places to sell your house? How about this - the average time it takes to sell a house in these five markets is over three months. Do you realize how much money this costs you? During those three months you can bet that the market price of your house has declined, considering that southern California hasn't found a bottom yet. The yucky reality of life is that your house is losing value the longer it sits on the market.
What can you do about it? By the old way of selling with the traditional real estate market - nothing! You just had to sit there and take it while the value of that house, probably your greatest asset, was whittled away by local real market conditions.
This is why the innovative business model of Open Door Auctions works so well. Remember that our entire process from listing to sale only takes 14 days. Compare that to the southern California average of 97 days using the old way of listing. With a 14 day window, you can expect that your house value will remain essentially unchanged. Expand that to 97 days and you're taking a chance that the market price will have declined substantially.
Open Door Auctions thrives on the back of an old business adage called The Big Mo', which is short for momentum. Even the best real estate agent on the planet can't possibly hope to keep interest in a property at a fever pitch over three months. Our philosophy is to list your property and then market the heck out of for a short period of time, after which we will sell your house. We build the momentum of interest quickly and don't give it a chance to die down before the thing is sold.
It's all about velocity. Build it fast and hold the pedal to the metal for two weeks. This draws much more focused interest than prolonging the process forever. We also like to appeal to the natural tendency of humans to gravitate towards scarcity. People who are interested in your home know that it will likely be gone in a matter of days. This forces them into a quick decision - make an offer or pass?
You might be surprised how often they choose to make an offer rather than risk the chance of not being able to get the property at any price. So there you have it. Our business model thrives on velocity, momentum, and scarcity. Nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical about it. Actually, it's the old way of doing business, using the death by slow torture approach of taking months or years to sell a house, that could be nominated as cruel and unusual.
Essentially a house seller puts their life on hold for the duration of the sale. It's tough to move on with life, make big decisions about jobs, homes, or school until the house is sold. Everything else being equal, which it is, would you rather have that hanging over your head for 97 days or 14 days? Ultimately, the choice of whether to call your old real estate agent or choose to go with Open Door Auctions comes down to one thing. What have you got to lose? The answer is nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Don't forget that we specialize in selling AND buying of properties and, after you've sold your house, what better time to become a property investor or new home owner than then? You've got the money! We take the middleman out of the property sales game for both sides of the equation. Give us two weeks and we'll give you your life back.
The Open Door Auctions Team
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