It seems to reason that when you see a house that is somewhat on the edge of being overpriced, is in a less then preferable location and doesn’t have a great floor-plan, that it should sit on the market for awhile. Well, that is what I would assume, however you never know what is going to happen when you put a house on the market. Take for instance the two new construction houses down the street from where I live. They were thrown up in the past few months, are literally 1/2 block from an extremely busy intersection and transitional neighborhood. They are built as separate houses although they look and feel just like a townhouse as they are tall and narrow on a single lot between the two of them. When the for sale sign went up in front of them, I thought to myself well those will take a long time to sell. Especially after seeing the $499K listed price. But much to my surprise, after only a week of being on the market one of them has already sold. So, this 1 week sale completely defies the current market conditions for our neighborhood. Average days on market are over a month with many house sitting longer then that.

What is the key to this little house selling so quickly? Two things. Price & Staging. This one, unlike it’s neighbor was staged with furniture and art creating a very comfy, cozy feeling when you walk in the door. The price, just below $500K allowed for a lot more of the market to discover it (anyone searching for under $500K) verses if it was listed at $515K, then only those searching for homes over $500K would have seen it. Also, I think just a little bit of luck and timing. The right buyer walked through that door at the right moment and that’s something that you just can’t anticipate nor put statistics on.