By Chris Doucet
I start every morning (early, about 4:30 am) by jumping on the Multiple Listing Service and checking on new inventory for all of the many market areas where I work. This area encompasses north to Mukilteo, south to Normandy Park and Seattle east to Sammamish. A broad area, I know, but one where my clients take me. It has been a point of discussion in many of my agent groups that the pickings are slim and the spring listing rush has not yet begun. It is widely known that, historically, spring is the best time to list and sell a home. Flowers are popping up, lawns are green and we are favored with a few more hours of daylight. Every year there are more people who get an early start and list in February. So far, that hasn’t happened and we are now into the 3rd week. Granted, we have been digging ourselves out of a historically long snowfall but this is unusual.
Yesterday, in 9 market areas there were 3 new listings in a 24 hour period.
Why should this be so when the interest rates have decreased and the buyers are out of the holiday hiatus? Prices have stabilized to a more balanced market so perhaps greedy sellers are not as predominant, but this is crazy.
It is the old adage of Supply and Demand. We have buyers but not sellers. The few properties that I have listed over the last few weeks are getting tons of interest and multiple offers. Multiple offers are not a thing of the past, they are happening RIGHT NOW.
If you are a seller, get that home listed NOW before everyone else does who is dragging their feet and waiting for spring to arrive. Take advantage of the demand without the competition that will invariably appear in mid March and April.
The early bird gets the best buyers