Oct. 28--You may not have found the home of your dreams, but it may not be time to give up the hunt just yet.
Chicago-area housing market data for the latest month show that more than 16,000 houses, town houses and condominiums came on the market in September, according to Midwest Real Estate Data, the local multiple listing service. That compares with less than 14,000 homes in September 2013 and fewer than 13,000 properties in September 2012.
The reasons why a homeowner would try to sell a property near the traditional end of the local home-buying season are as varied as they are when homes come on the market in April. It may be a job transfer, a new baby, a downsizing or an estate sale.
A fair number of sellers appear to be putting their homes on the market because they finally found another home to buy and need to sell their existing home, or maybe they've read the predictions that the low mortgage interest rates are expected to increase next year. Or they've seen enough evidence of rising sale prices around them because of the inventory shortage and want to benefit from the uptick.
Other benefits of putting a house on the market now? Real estate agents note that a home has an easier time shining, compared with the rush of newly listed properties in the early spring. In April and May, more than 19,000 new listings came online in the Chicago area, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. Also, sellers have two seasons worth of comparable sales prices to look at when they set their list prices.
How do these fall listings change the tenor of the market this year? Typically, buyers feel they're in control as the year winds down, that sellers would only put their home on the market because they're desperate to sell and that will allow a bidder to come in with a low offer.
This year, that may not be the case."Sellers don't feel desperate at all," said Cynthia Tobisch, a realty agent at Redfin.
What does hold true though, and sellers should keep this in mind, is that buyers looking for properties are serious. They aren't looking at houses just to look at them. And if they find one they like, they pounce and want to close before the holidays.
"The pool of buyers you're chasing is less but the quality is so much better," said Robert Wisdom, an agent with Re/Max Horizon. "These are people who want to purchase a home right now. We are riding a little wave in terms of the amount of inquiries coming in."
That means serious sellers shouldn't spend too much time testing the market with a too-high list price. They also shouldn't think they can get away with not properly preparing a house for sale.
Some sellers and their agents who are in a rush to list homes have posted photos on real estate sites that are textbook cases of what not to do, listings with poorly lit photos and unkempt rooms with far too much stuff.
"The way we shop for real estate now, it's like everything else," said Jeanne Jordan, an agent at J.W. Reedy Realty. "It's pictures and tours. No one wants to look at pictures of a dirty bathroom with a hair dryer and an open toilet."
Real estate agents also say they already are hearing from homeowners who are interested in putting their homes on the market in early 2015, and want to start preparing their properties. That work can help with a better sales price next year.
"First impressions are everything," said @properties agent Andrew Forster. "These buyers still want everything. You get a lot of brand-new buyers, second-home buyers who are moving from the city with the two-bedroom, two-bath new (condo). A brand-new two-bedroom, two-bath shows a little differently than a 60-year-old Colonial."
mepodmolik@tribune.com
Twitter @mepodmolik
