SELL YOUR HOME

We have the most buyers looking in the summer and fall.  However that is also when we have the most listings available.  So in the winter and spring there is less competition. There are always buyers looking in Summit County year round, so the best time to sell is when the timing works best for your goals.

In Summit County two thirds of our buyers are second home buyers.  These buyers are typically looking for a place to come and relax, and are willing to pay more for a property that is already upgraded and/or in good condition.  Depending on your goals, it can definitely help your property sell faster and for more to do some renovations.  However we would need to see your property and discuss your specific plans to be able to make a detailed recommendation.

The more a potential buyer can imagine themselves in your home when they see it, the better. Personal decorations and belongings distract from that feeling and so if it is possible, you will want to get as much of your personal items out of your home or put away before you put it on the market.

In Summit County we are currently in more of a Seller’s market, with low supply and high demand. While many of our listings do sell within the first few days, the average days on market overall is still over 50.  Our goal will be to balance your goals for pricing and timing with the current market conditions, to ensure we get you the highest price possible in this market.

While it does make sense to give yourself room to negotiate, you also need to make sure that you are still within a range that will generate an offer. If you are too high above what a buyer will find reasonable, you will be wasting your time on the market with no offers.  

The market will tell you whether you are within the right price range for your home.  It has to be in a range that a buyer will find reasonable enough to at least take a look.  If you are not getting any showings at all, you need to change either the price or the condition of the home in order to generate showing momentum. If you are getting a lot of showings but no offers, you also need to adjust either price or condition.  

Open houses are a great way to get exposure for your home to potential buyers.  Even if it is just your neighbors who stop by because they want to take a peek, that is still good advertising as they may mention it to someone else.  If it is allowed in your area and you are OK with it, we will do our best to have open houses at the times that will generate the most interest.

We have a very long list of the ways we will market your home, but the bottom line is that we want to get maximum exposure for your home to as many potential buyers as possible. Our goal is that no matter where that buyer is looking, they will see your home and it will look as good as it possibly can.  In our market most buyers start their search online, so we dedicate a lot of time and effort making sure that your home is on all of the internet platforms that get the most visibility. 

This is definitely a possibility in our market, especially if you are priced appropriately.  Every situation is different so we do not have a black and white answer on how multiple offers will be handled.  It will depend on how many offers, when they were received, what the terms are of each, and most importantly how you want to handle it. If this does happen we will present all offers, go over the details of each, and discuss the pros and cons of different choices for responding so that you can decide what makes the most sense for you.

The average sold to list price for most listings in our market (ie under $1M) is just over 98%. So most listings are going for very close to full price, but not all of them sell for full price.  In our market of mostly second homes we find that often even when it does go for over full price, it is not over by too much.  We very seldom see an aggressive bidding war because our buyers typically do not have to buy and they avoid that situation.

If anyone tells you they know the answer for sure, you should be skeptical.  No one can predict what will happen to the market in the future. However we can say that in the past, the Summit County real estate market has followed the Front Range market closely, which includes the greater Denver metro area from Fort Collins all the way to Colorado Springs.  Two thirds of our property owners are second home owners, and two thirds of those second home owners are from within 3 hours of Summit County.  Since many of our property owners and visitors are from the Front Range, historically if their economy is doing well, so is ours.  When their market went down in 2006, we followed with a market downturn starting in 2008.  When they rebounded, it took us a few more years to fully recover.  So if their real estate market and economy continues to thrive and grow, our market will continue to grow as well.  Our demand is still growing but our supply can not grow very much.