While reading a real estate magazine article about “the pros and cons of buying during the peak selling season,” I was fairly certain (as you probably would be) that, one way or another, the cons wouldn’t outweigh the pros. Minnetonka’s peak selling season is certainly prime time whenever there are homes for sale, but often there are reasons when other times of year can be just as opportune.
This article comes up with more pros than cons. No surprise there: we can all bank on the inevitability of that conclusion (that NOW is a good time to buy or sell) whenever we’re hearing from an industry whose business includes both buying and selling!
So—how do you actually get the straight scoop on the subject?
The answer may lie in understanding why a true best answer for when to put up Minnetonka homes for sale always does tend to be “now.” It’s because of a phenomenon called “The Riddle of the Ultimate Buyer.” The riddle goes like this:
The “Ultimate Buyer” is the prospect who will ultimately wind up buying your Minnetonka house. Before you put it on the market, there is no way to accurately forecast very much about whom that will actually be. We can set our marketing outreach to target the most likely buyer profiles (in fact, that’s what we do), but as any experienced Minnetonka Realtor will tell you, the “Ultimate Buyer” could also be anyone—and their identity is often surprisingly unlike what anyone would or could have predicted. Frequently, their choice of which home to buy has been shaped by unforeseeable motivations.
Not only is the profile of the “Ultimate Buyer” unknown, his or her schedule is equally enigmatic. The only thing we do know for certain is that your “Ultimate Buyer” will be looking, become interested, and make an offer while your Minnetonka home is up for sale. If you put off listing for a month or two, those months might have been the only ones during which that prospect was looking to buy in Minnetonka. That might have been the only time when that buyer happened to drive past your house (it would have been without my “For Sale” sign out front); might have been the only time he or she was available to take a tour; found suitable financing—any number of factors might have been in play.
“The Riddle of the Ultimate Buyer” is a puzzle so we can only rely upon the one thing we know for certain: buyers can only materialize once the home is up for sale. That’s why NOW is the better time to list, not after the buyer who would have been your “Ultimate Buyer” has already moved into another Minnetonka house. They’re someone else’s Ultimate Buyer—because they won’t be back!
So, while there’s no guaranteed answer to when is absolutely the best time to list a home for sale, logic says it’s more likely to be now rather than later. Especially while we’re wrapping up Minnetonka’s peak spring selling season, when there is usually a greater number of potential “Ultimate Buyers” actively searching for their new Minnetonka home.
Cindy Hanson Welu is a Certified Community Expert for Minnetonka, a Listing/Marketing Specialist and Accredited Staging Professional with over 1500 homes SOLD. She can be reached at 952-943-1324 or cindy@joeandcindy.com. Visit MinnetonkaExperts.com.
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