Understanding any commercial market takes a lot of learning, trial and error, and consistent practice within the field. For example, the real estate market is subject to ups and downs, with a constant average return throughout real estate history.
That means that eventually, it will progressively move upwards, at a certain pace, and always bring back some form of return on investment. Yet that’s also if plans don’t change for people in their lives.
People buy a home, live in it for three decades while paying a mortgage, and stay until retirement and beyond. Then that real estate may be passed down as the foundation of generational wealth for families or liquidated for a comfortable retirement during the sunset years.
That sounds great in some cases, but those pivotal moments in life don’t always coincide with how the market is doing. As a home buyer, that means you cannot be stuck trying to figure out when is the best time to sell and if you should wait or simply sell now. That’s what’s called trying to time to market.
Why it’s not effective
When you’re trying to sell a significant asset at those higher price points, they will move a lot slower than other assets. So there’s a time delay, and the housing markets may not stay at those high peaks for long. They may become volatile, and they might also become stagnant. That’s the nature of it.
So when you opt to sell your home, there’s a certain level of commitment you need to make to yourself. That means you need to go all-in with the mindset of selling your home as fast as possible with the highest potential return.
Try to understand that even if the market is down or up, it’s of little relevance to your current situation, especially after you’ve paid down a mortgage and/or built extensive equity in it. That equity is considered unrealized until you sell it and receive that money in your account. It’s equivalent to the money being an assumption or even pretends money; that’s never truly a guarantee.
So you end up struggling back and forth on when to sell, when to maximize profits and when to cash out. All of this is instead of actually selling the place, and you might have missed an opportunity you didn’t even know existed until selling.
Selling opens up the future doors
While you’re still focused on juggling and playing with the housing market, that is the one market that moves the slowest, and you are stuck in that zone. You haven’t even prepared the process of selling your home and eating up valuable time and opportunities of what’s next.
Maybe there’s a more cost-effective location you can live with the proceeds from your home. Perhaps you’re able to retire earlier and get yourself out of the headache of your home. Or maybe there’s a new real estate investment opportunity that you’re more aligned with, but you simply need the liquidity.
Waiting doesn’t do anything but cost. It will cost you time, money, patience, and maybe even health through the additional stress-related issues. That means you want to be as decisive as possible and sell fast. The fastest way to sell your home is to sell it yourself. There’s no need for middlemen (or women) in this day and age, and your phone will take good enough pictures to post online and find those buyers.
By selling yourself, you’ll also attract very motivated buyers who want to buy with all cash deals as soon as you’re all packed up and ready to leave. There is no escrow, no real estate broker fee, and no nitpicking if the front lawn needs to be mowed or one small part of the fence needs to be redone.
Don’t spend any more time trying to maximize your profits and earnings with the best possible sticker price because chances are, you probably won’t hit that sticker price anyway, and you’re not going to see the whole picture. Without the bird’s eye view of the situation, you won’t know how this market timing will only end up hurting you with your decision-making.
You also won’t know when the markets will go up after a dip the next time. This unknown leaves you in a potential real estate limbo without the foresight of the best new time to sell. The ideal time to be selling is when you’re ready to do it and to sell to people who have all-cash offers to save you processing time.