How long should it take to sell my home?
That’s a great question, and absent a crystal ball, we have to rely on market data to answer that question. There are several things to consider, one being competition.
You must also remember that not all competition is comparable. What I mean by that is that buyers don’t always just consider a single neighborhood. A typical buyer will look at homes in a variety of neighborhoods, as well as new construction. Usually those homes fall into a certain price range that the buyer can afford, and also share other common traits like a particular school district, or a community pool, or a commuting distance to a military base or other workplace. In order to really drill down on predicting odds of selling, those calculations should be made using several different parameters (neighborhood, price range, school district, etc.).
A 27% chance of selling in 6 months seems slim. Yes, it does. And, that’s exactly why you must be careful not to get too focused on medians or averages – in both cases, although some homes sell more quickly, others take longer.
I am always amazed at how many listings expire after not selling in the first 6 months on the market. It’s not unusual for that number to be as much as 50%!
That’s precisely why the “days on market” calculation is the least reliable. Although the MLS system will generate a report showing us how many days a listing has been on the market, it does not show how many days the same house may have been on the market under a prior listing.
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