You put your home on the market after finally deciding to sell, now what? You may have a lot of questions, the most common being, “how long does it take for a house to sell?”

The answer is not simple as there are a lot of key factors that come into play. Read on to learn more.

How Long Does It Take for a House to Sell?

There is no one-size-fits-all timeline for how long it takes a home to sell. To truly answer the question, “how long does it take for a house to sell?”, the following factors need to be considered:

Pre-listing

The home selling process begins before a home is put on the market. Before listing, you need to prep the home to sell.

An agent will come to the home to provide guidance on what needs to be completed. In general, this is what you should do during the pre-listing stage:

An agent may ask you to make other changes depending on the condition of your home. However, the changes tend to be low cost.

Market State

The biggest factor in the home selling timeline is the current state of the market. If there is a huge demand for homes in your area, the home will sell faster.

This is something you can’t control unless you sell your home at the right time of the year. However, this is not always ideal.

If the market isn’t booming and you desperately need your home to sell, we buy houses is a fast and efficient option.

Home Condition

If you opted to skip on repairing or renovating parts of your home that need it, your house won’t sell as fast. Buyers don’t consider a badly conditioned home move-in ready.

Price

It is essential to research how much the homes in your area are selling for. This will give you an idea of how much your home is worth.

Without this knowledge, you could grossly overprice your home. This leads to it sitting on the market for a longer period of time.

When staged, marketed, and priced correctly, most homes will only spend 30 days or less on the market. A home with a higher price will only cause problems for the seller.

Financial Situation of the Buyer

Most homebuyers will finance homes they purchase. Because of this, there is a possibility that the home buying process will get delayed. There is always the risk of a buyer’s home loan taking longer than expected to go through.

The Agent

If the agent you hire is not experienced in selling homes, your home is likely to sit on the market longer. You can shrink the gap between listing and closing by hiring the right agent.

The Verdict

So, how long does it take for a house to sell? The truth is that the process depends on various factors.

Even when your home does sell, you’ll have to wait around 40 days before closing. If your house sits on the market for an average of 30 days, the process won’t be over for 70 days from the listing.

There is a lot to learn about the real estate industry. Check out our other articles for more information.