I have a really cool tool called the Client Gateway that I deploy for my buyers.  It builds a web site for them with the new listings that meet their needs.

I was doing some maintenance today, checking for messages in the Gateways of a few buyers and seeing if I needed to get further information on properties for them.  One of the things I check is properties that are “No Longer Available“.  The reasons a property will no longer be available are:

  • The listing has been Withdrawn.
  • The listing has Expired.
  • The home has Sold.
  • The property is Pending Sale (It is past the due diligence period and should close).

I was a little shocked at what I found.  Normally, I would find properties ‘No Longer Available’ and they would usually be expired or withdrawn.

That wasn’t the case today.  As I ran through them, I found the majority of the properties to be sold or pending sale.

Why is this important?

These aren’t random properties.  These are the properties that interest specific buyers. What I am pulling from that is that interesting properties are starting to sell… and some of them are selling fairly quickly.  In one case, a buyer had 39 properties in their “Like” folder.  Of those, 18 properties were no longer available.  Of the 18, 15 were sold or pending sale.  Of the sold and closed properties, 4 of the 7 were on the market less than 30 days…

If you are a Buyer…

If you think the house is a good deal, and you like it, there might just be someone else out there thinking the same thing. If the price just reduced, if it hit the sweet spot, it will sell…

If you are a Seller…

If you price your property properly, and you make sure it looks good and it is marketed, it CAN sell quickly.  Average Days on Market are just that… averages.  If two homes sell, one in 1 day and one in 179 days, the average is 90 DoM.  There are a lof of homes selling after LONG listing periods… and there are some homes selling VERY quickly.

Does this mean the market has turned?

I’ll tell you in July or August what happened in the Spring.  Before then it is just a guess…  The report with February solid numbers and preliminary numbers will be out around the begining of next week (April 5th or so…).