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If you’re about to put your house on the market, you likely have a laundry list of things to fix, open houses to organize, and real estate listings to write. In the end, all of these tasks serve one purpose: to sell your home quickly, and at top dollar. Now there’s another task to add to your home-selling to-do list: A recent analysis by real estate search platform Redfin revealed that listing your home in the middle of the week helps to sell it sooner, and for more money.
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Peak Home-Listing Days
Redfin’s data reveals that a home that’s listed on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday typically sells for $1,700 more than a house that is listed on a weekend. (That home sells nearly two days faster, too.) Their analysis also found that homes get 64 percent more views the first day they are on the market than the day after a price drop. The takeaway here? Don’t overprice your new listing, because your home will receive the most attention it will get in those first few days it is on the market.
Big Sales Numbers for Many Metros
Redfin examined the sale price of homes that were listed for sale midweek on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and compared those prices to those of homes listed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. The search platform’s research looked at nationwide and metro numbers for homes listed both midweek and on the weekend, from July 2020 and February 2021.
Redfin’s findings indicate that homes listed midweek in Boston sold for an average of $7,100 more than those listed on the weekend. It’s the largest premium found in 25 different metro areas, including Newark ($4,500 more), Seattle ($4,400 more), Oakland ($3,500 more), and Denver ($3,200 more). Cities with the smallest home premiums (in comparison) included Minneapolis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Houston, and Atlanta, which yielded just a $400 to $500 difference between sales of homes listed midweek versus those listed on a weekend.
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A Competitive Market
Thanks to the pandemic, the housing market is incredibly competitive. With such demand most homes get plenty of attention anyway, but this Redfin hint helps sellers increase interest even more.
“Sellers can still maximize their potential profit by listing in the middle of the week,” says Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. Doing so “gives potential buyers a few days to see the home, talk to their agent, and set up a showing for Saturday or Sunday.”
Set a Reasonable Listing Price
To get the best—and most—offers on your home, Fairweather says, it’s important to list your home at an appropriate price.
“If the home is priced too high, fewer buyers will see the home,” she explains, “but if it’s priced too low, the seller may be inundated with so many tour requests a serious buyer could give up before laying eyes on it. The goal is to get as many serious buyers as possible to tour your home, make offers, and drive up the sale price.”
If you don’t go into contract on your home within a reasonable time and you have to drop the list price, it’s unlikely that many potential buyers looking within the home’s new price range will even see it.
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Weekend Warriors
Weekends are the most convenient time for prospective buyers to tour homes, which is why many agents’ appointment schedules are booked long before Friday and Saturday roll around. If your listing goes live on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, there’s a good chance that house hunters have already filled up their schedules with plans to see other homes. The other danger of listing on a Sunday or a Monday is that buyers may lose interest in a home if they have to wait almost a week to tour it.
Midweek Listings Can Sell Faster
Homes listed midweek, according to Redfin’s findings, sold 1.6 days faster than ones listed on the weekend. Their data revealed that homes in St. Louis most benefited from midweek listings—in fact, the typical midweek listing sold 3.5 days faster than one that was posted on a weekend. It’s followed by Newark, where homes sold 2.9 days faster; Grand Rapids (2.9 days), and Boston (2.8 days). The metro areas that benefited least from midweek listings include Sacramento (0.7 days), Chicago (0.8 days), and Dallas (0.9 days).