I missed the boat, literally.
You can see it in the distance in this photo, heading out without me.
On Wednesday I was tardy getting out of my office and heading to the lake. My entire office was setting sail at 11:30 for our regular weekly meeting, but this time it would be while cruising beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene. Lunch was being served at sea, the weather was perfect and a good time was anticipated.
Long story short, I waited too long to head down to the dock. I stepped on the dock at 11:30, just in the nick of time. There were two boats loading right before my eyes, neither one of them my boat. My boat was departing from a different location.
This week I had a conversation with someone who was bemoaning
the fact that we are already well into July and the odds are not good to get a home sold this year if it hasn't happened by now. "Sellers have missed the boat."
Hold your horses! That is NOT the case and I have the numbers to prove it!
It is a very common misconception that people scramble to buy and sell in the spring and summer, and relocate while school is out. Once we get to September all the potential home buyers hunker in, sales drop to near nothing until another round of scrambling in the spring. You may THINK that, it may SEEM that that is how it is, but the real numbers from our Coeur d'Alene MLS tell an entirely different story. Let's look at the facts.
Sorry I don't have pretty charts and graphs for you to look at, but these numbers are pretty darn attractive if you have a home to sell. Here's how the percentages of total sales of single family residences last year were divided by quarter. I think they may surprise you.
1ST QTR: 19%
2ND QTR: 29%
3RD QTR: 29%
4TH QTR: 23%
Well, well, well, look at that. People are buying
and selling homes year 'round here in north Idaho!
There is a a little sunshine seasonal bump for sure, and a little dip along with the temperatures in the frigid first months of the year. But there is no reason for anyone to think that they have missed the boat for this year.
Here's how the % of home sales stack up by the month. Check it out, September and October actually see a little bit more home sales activity than do March and April!
- January - 5%
- February - 6%
- March - 8%
- April - 9%
- June - 11%
- July - 10%
- August - 10%
- September - 9%
- October - 9%
- November - 7%
- December - 7%
I missed the boat, but YOU definitely haven't if your goal is to get your home sold in 2015. It's important that you have your home priced correctly for the market, keep it in good showing condition and make it easy to show, and do everything you can to get it maximum exposure to the buying public. Take heart, there is still PLENTY of time to make it happen, statistically speaking.
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