Everyone knows that location plays a big part in a property’s value, but few know that the “time of listing” is as important when putting a house up for sale. While we can not change the location of a house we are selling, we have the ability to decide when we list it for sale.

Listing a house at the right time can improve the time it takes to sell a home as well as raise the sales price. Here are some of the best times to sell your home, according to data from Zillow and Redfin. 

Season: Spring

It has long been common knowledge among real estate agents that people generally start looking for homes when the holiday season comes to an end, and the weather becomes more pleasant to be outdoors. Spring brings back the leaves and perennial plants, boosting the curb appeal. And for parts of the United States with very cold winters, spring brings back more movement and many families also start looking for homes before summer vacation begins. 

Depending on where you are in the country, spring starts at different times. Sellers in the south might want to list their house as early as February or March, while sellers in the north might want to wait a bit longer to put up their listings. 

The alternative to listing in the spring would be to list in the fall. And contrary to popular belief, depending on where you are geographically in the country, summer is generally not the best time to sell a house because people typically spend the season vacationing. There are also parts of the country where it gets too hot in the summer for buyers to want to go outdoors to house hunt. 

Month: May

Nationwide, the best time to sell a house is in the month of May. In fact, houses that listed for sale in the first half of May sold almost two weeks faster and for 1.2% more than the average listing, according to a study by Zillow. 

The first half of May was the best time to list in 14 of the 24 largest markets analyzed by Zillow. However, while the average home listed in May earned a premium of $2,400, homes that were listed in San Franciso in the last half of April earned a 1.7% premium, which comes out to about $15,300. 

Day: Thursday

You will have to pray to get the best price if you list your house on Sunday. According to a study conducted by Redfin, homes listed on a Sunday not only sold slower but also sold for less. 

Redfin analyzed 100,000 homes that sold in 2017 and found that homes that were listed on a Wednesday sold for $2,023 more than a home listed on Sunday. The analysts also found that homes listed on a Thursday sold 5 days faster than homes listed on a Sunday. 

They speculated that Wednesday and Thursday were the best days to list because that’s when buyers typically start looking for houses they plan to see over the weekend. 

“Serious buyers typically start making their weekend house-hunting plans late in the workweek,” a Redfin agent said in the study. “You want your home to be one of the fresh listings buyers see pop up as they decide which homes they should see over the weekend.”

However, just because the average home sells well on one day nationally, doesn’t mean it will fare as well on that day locally. For example, sellers who live in big cities may want to list their house on a Tuesday, when broker’s open houses are common. 

Local Markets May Vary

If you live in a completely average house, the best time to list it for sale it would seem is the second Thursday in May. For everyone else, it is important to talk to your local real estate agent to find out the best time to list a house in your area. 

Real Estate Agents who understand what it takes to sell a home understand the importance of curb appeal. The most important aspect of a quick home sale is getting as many people in the door as possible. As such, it’s important to make a good first impression in order to get potential buyers in the right frame of mind. No matter how good your listing photos look, if the outside of your house is a horror show, not only will far fewer people refuse to step inside, the few that do will enter it in the wrong frame of mind.

It’s understandable that not many sellers would want to engage in the expense and heartache involved with doing a full overhaul on their landscape, but there are many instances where sellers are in full self-sabotage mode without realizing it. So while it’s understandable that a seller wouldn’t be willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to increase their curb appeal, there are no excuses for the little, virtually free things that can be done to keep it respectable.

1. Grimey Windows

No matter how diligent you are at cleaning the inside of your home, including your inside windows unless you wash them from the outside, they will appear dirty and have a noticeable effect on your curb appeal. You don’t have to wash them once a week or anything like that, just make sure you give them a thorough scrubbing with soap and water and a hose down twice a year.

2. Overgrown Lawn

Probably the most common curb appeal killer is an overgrown lawn. At least twice a month, it’s important to maintain your lawn. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to dig out every weed, but as long as the grass is short and you have put the proper care into edging, it will look fine. The point is not to stick out like a sore thumb with respect to your neighbors.

3. Decrepit Garage Door

One of the first things that capture the attention of onlookers is the garage door, making it a vital aspect of curb appeal. This can be problematic because garage doors suffer a great deal of wear and tear. If replacing your garage door is not in the budget, there’s no excuse for not giving it a quick DIY paint job on a lazy Sunday.

4. Front Door

If the garage door is one of the first things people look at, one of the few things it’s surpassed by is the front door. If your front door isn’t up to snuff, you don’t have to completely replace it with something new, nice front doors are expensive. But repainting it and replacing the hardware will give a much-needed facelift with minimal expense.

5. Outdoor Lighting

Curb appeal during the daylight hours is as important as curb appeal at night. When a property is on the market, there will be prospective buyers driving by to check out the house; oftentimes it is after work hours when the sun is about to set. If your lighting is too dim your house can look uninviting, and if it’s too bright it can be intimidating. Make sure to replace the bulbs with the right intensity to create an ambiance that is comfortable to the eye. If it’s still too dark you can light the path to your door with solar-powered lights. They are inexpensive and impose no energy cost.

There isn’t enough that can be said about the term ‘Presentation is everything.’ The reality is, no matter how good something is if it doesn’t present well it will be grossly undervalued. If you’re selling your old bike on craigslist, losing out on an extra 10 bucks due to poor presentation may not be the biggest deal, but when you’re selling a house, poor presentation (staging) can result in losing out on tens of thousands of dollars. Who can afford to lose out on that kind of money?

This is why any knowledgeable real estate agent will push you to focus on staging so that your house presents well. In fact, there’s an entire staging industry where expert stagers doll up your house to ensure you get top dollar. However, between the stagers fee, furniture rentals, and touch-ups, it can cost more money than is in your marketing budget. This leads many to undertake frugal projects on their home to maximize their homes’ presentation value. 

Before frugal projects are executed, however,  the best path is to first execute staging strategies that don’t cost any money and then assess with your real estate agent what the next steps are in prepping your home for live showings.

1. Reassess Your Furniture 

We’re not suggesting taking money out of your pocket to buy or rent new furniture, that wouldn’t be free. Rather, we are referring to eliminating certain items and adjusting furniture layouts. To make our homes comfortable and livable, we often hang on to comfortable furniture that may not look nice and have more pieces than necessary. In staging, less is more, the first step is to assess which are your nicest pieces and storing the rest elsewhere. Next, you should arrange your furniture in a way that flows rather than what’s most comfortable or convenient.

2. Declutter

Clutter not only makes rooms look less appealing, but it’s also distracting. Selling your home is a great time to rid yourself of all the clutter you don’t need. As for the rest, find somewhere to stow it away so that it’s not visible. As mentioned before, less is more, you want to use a minimalist approach when staging your home and keep the look as clean and fresh as possible.

3. Remove All Personal Items

For a buyer to consider a home, they have to visualize themselves in it. Family portraits and items on the fridge or corkboard all make it very difficult to achieve that endeavor. This doesn’t mean leave your walls bare, tasteful art is ok. However, any item that traces directly to you (mainly family photos) should be taken down and stowed out of sight so that prospective buyers can fully visualize themselves there and fall in love with your house.

4. Remove Extra Storage

There’s a little hoarder inside all of us. As we accumulate more items we implore creative storage solutions. These include hanging shoe racks on your closet door, plastic storage bins, and a whole host of other solutions. If prospective buyers see these eyesores, it will subconsciously tell them that the house doesn’t have sufficient storage to meet their needs. Eliminate all storage solutions that aren’t built into the fabric of the house.

Does your house have an old lingering smell?

Buyers won’t be interested in a house that doesn’t pass the smell test. They don’t know what that smell is, or where it’s coming from. Worst of all, they don’t know if it’s a permanent smell they will have to live with for years. The slightest odd smell will have your potential buyers dash out the door before they even get a chance to see the entire place. 

If you’ve tried opening the window, mopping, and using sprays, but the smell still won’t go away, you might want to try baking soda. It is non-toxic, works with removing most odor, and you might even already have some lying somewhere in your house. 

Kitchen

Unlike other air fresheners, baking soda doesn’t just mask odors, it absorbs them. It is especially good at neutralizing smelly compounds in foods like sour milk and rotten meat. 

Refrigerator

If you don’t want buyers to get a face full of leftover smells when they open the fridge, put an open box of baking soda in the fridge and one in the freezer too. 

If the smell is really bad, opening a corner of a baking soda box isn’t going to cut it. Instead, pour the baking soda onto a plate to increase the surface area and stick that in the fridge. 

Trash Can

While you are taking out the trash, make sure to check the trash can itself. Sprinkle some baking soda into the bottom of the trash can and into the trash bag to get it smelling like new.

Garbage Disposal

If you have a general smell in your kitchen, it might be coming from the open drains. Just pour ¼ cup of baking soda down the drain along with ¼ cup of vinegar and some kosher salt to neutralize the smell. 

After you see bubbles rise from the drain, wait 5-10 minutes and wash it down with some boiling water. Then run the disposal with cool water. 

Microwave

Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and a cup of water to a microwave-safe bowl and zap it for 3 minutes. The baking soda will eliminate the smell while the steam from the water will make it easy to clean the stains. 

Oven

If you haven’t turned on the oven in a while to avoid that burning smell, baking soda can help with that too. With half a cup of baking soda and 2 quarts of water, create a thick paste that you can scrub all over your oven. Then wait 24 hours before you wipe it off with water. 

This will not only clean the oven, but it will also make it smell better. Plus, this same method can be used on the range, the fridge, the backsplash, and most other surfaces in the kitchen. The paste is noncorrosive, so you don’t have to worry about damaging surfaces like other harsh cleaners. 

Living Room

Baking soda also helps eliminate human odors like sweat or pet urine, which might be the culprit in your living room or bedroom.

Carpets & Rugs

Nothing takes a worse beating in a house than the carpets and rugs, that is especially true when it comes to smells. After years of walking on them, spilling things on them, and not cleaning them as often as you should, they probably need a little deodorizing. 

All you have to do is sprinkle a little baking soda across the carpet or rug and let it sit for a few hours. If the smell is still there, try leaving it overnight, then vacuuming it up. 

You can also use this technique on dog and cat beds or a couch or bed. Anything with fabric can be deodorized with a little baking soda. 

Bedroom Closets

If you keep your dirty socks in a hamper in your closet, your whole bedroom might smell that way. Keeping an open box of baking soda in your closet can help clear up the smell. But if you want to go straight to the source, you can sprinkle baking soda directly in your shoes. 

Air Freshener

Since baking soda only eliminates odors that it comes in contact with, making a spray will help it get around the room better. Just add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a spray bottle with water and you have a deodorizer you can spray anywhere around the house. 

With such a healthy, eco-friendly, budget-friendly way to remove odors around the house, you might want to pick up a box of baking soda next time you’re in the store and try these tips out for yourself. Your nose will thank you. 

The moment you buy your first home, it’s only a matter of time until something breaks and you have to fix it. Chances are, you used to call your landlord anytime something broke in the past, or maybe you have a handyman in the family that would help you.

But now you are on your own, and any repairs that need to be made suddenly need to be made by you. So, you’re going to want to head down to the local hardware store and pick up a few items to make sure you are always prepared. 

Here’s a quick list of 8 tools that you might not have had in your apartment but should definitely have when you move into your first home. 

A Toolbox

First thing’s first: you need a place to put all the tools you are about to buy. Sure, you can keep everything in some bag, but you’ll eventually lose so many tools, that buying a toolbox will be cheaper. 

Plus, many toolboxes make it easier to organize your stuff, which will cut down on the time you spend doing repairs. Some toolbox sets come with many of the items on this list already inside. However, you might not want to get one of these because it might have tools that you don’t use or there might not be room for other tools you use all the time. 

Screwdrivers

You’ll be screwed if you don’t have at least 2 kinds of screwdriver: a Phillips head and a slot head. Nearly every kind of screw will work with these two screwdrivers. 

While you might have had one of these before, you should get a set that has several different kinds of tips. If you get one that’s magnetic, it will also help you fish screws out of tight spaces. 

A Power Drill

Every screw needs a hole, and that’s where drills come in handy. Plus, even if you have a screwdriver, it is pretty tough to get screws into your studs without a power drill. 

When buying a cordless power drill, make sure to get one that has a universal battery type. This way you can use the same battery for other power tools you end up buying in the future.

An Adjustable Wrench

You’d be nuts not to get an adjustable wrench for your new house! Without one of these, there’s no way you could undo any nuts or bolts. 

You might also have to get more than one wrench or even a socket wrench set, depending on your needs. They are often necessary to work on different pipes around the house. 

A Tape Measure

Once you have a tape measure, you’ll be surprised by how many things you want to measure. Having one will make it easy to find out how big the couch is before you decide to move it into the other room, or how tall your window is before you buy new curtains. 

Putty Knives

You probably didn’t need to have a putty knife in your apartment because you weren’t supposed to damage the drywall. Now that you have your own place, you want to make sure to plug up any unsightly holes that you are allowed to cause now. 

Putty knives can also be used to scrape dry glue or paint from surfaces like glass and ceramic. It is also best to buy two of them so you can use one to scrape any junk off the other. 

A Stud Finder

Now that you can make holes in your walls, you’re going to want to put them in the right place. You might not know this, but you can’t just nail a picture anywhere, especially if a heavy one. You’ll end up creating a big hole in your drywall and the picture will fall down. 

Your studs are there to support the stuff you want to hang on the wall, make sure you know where they are. Pro tip: studs are usually spaced 16 inches apart in most homes.

A Snake

You don’t want to have to call a plumber every time a drain gets clogged. You can easily unclog your tub, toilet, and sink with this simple tool. There are many kinds of drain snakes that you can buy, but most of them will pay for themselves after a single-use. 

All pet owners know that a pet isn’t just a fixture, they’re a part of the family. And just like any other member of the family, they require a lot of care. When we say ‘pets’ we’re not referring to goldfish, but dogs and cats. Like humans, in order to have a healthy existence, pets require attention and affection. The lengths pet owners often go to ensure their pets have everything they need and more is astounding, but oftentimes they neglect to account for them when house hunting.

When house hunting, especially in competitive markets, finding an ideal house can be very challenging. Finding a layout you like on a nice property in an ideal neighborhood that’s in a good school district, in addition to many other factors, is not easy. Buyers tend to pounce on the first opportunity they get, often neglecting the needs of their pets.

A pet-friendly environment is an essential aspect of a successful home purchase. The last thing you want is a stressed pet when acclimating to your new stomping ground. A home or neighborhood that is not conducive to your pet’s contentment will compromise your contentment.

1. Community Pet Standards

Not all communities are pet friendly, in fact, some even have by-laws regarding pets. Before purchasing a home, ensure that you meet all the criteria and aren’t stuck in a situation where you’re in a community that doesn’t allow pets or places a restriction on how many you can have. Certain communities also have breed restrictions on dogs that are perceived as more aggressive.

2. Backyard & Neighbourhood Parks

If you have medium to large breed dogs or outdoor cats, they’re going to need plenty of room to roam. It’s suggested that larger dogs be walked for 1 hour a day. Having a yard large enough for them to stretch out is a start, but proximity to parks is essential. Also, take a look at the type of park, some parks are more pet friendly than others with designated off-leash areas and other pet-friendly perks.

3. Flooring

The ideal flooring for your pets is resistant to scratching, allows your pet some traction, is comfortable, and easy to clean. Make sure the flooring on a prospective home is suitable or contemplate if you are willing to upgrade it. If upgrading, speak to a flooring expert about the best options to meet those criteria and from there it depends on what your preferred style is. Carpeting, for example, is great for comfort and traction but is difficult to clean and will get torn up. Hardwood is easy to clean, but your pet will be slipping all over the place and scratching up your floor.

4. Stairs

Stairs can be a hazard to pets, a slip can result in a devastating injury to your fur baby. No matter what type of flooring you have, if your stairs aren’t carpeted, consider installing a stair runner so that your pet can get proper traction when ascending or descending the stairs. 

Whether you want to save the environment, or you just want to save money on your electrical bill, you probably turn off certain appliances and electrical products before you leave for work or go to bed. But you might not actually be saving as much as you think. 

In fact, 10% of residential electricity in the US is used by various products that have been turned off, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). Their study showed that certain electronics like your TV, microwave, and air conditioner don’t actually stop using energy when you turn them off. Instead, many products and appliances go into what is known as “standby mode,” which means they cannot be completely switched off unless they are unplugged. 

Here are the biggest “energy vampires” in your home, and how much energy they use when they are turned off, according to the LBNL’s research. 

Television

One reason your TV is always using a small amount of energy is to be able to receive a signal from a remote control. When a television with rear projection is turned on it uses around 186 Watts, but when it is off it uses an average of 7W to as much as 49W. 

That means a person who leaves their TV off (but plugged in) for 1 year, uses as much as 425kWh, which would have the same greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for 735 miles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Cable Box

If you’ve ever turned off your cable box before a long trip to save power, you might have been wasting your energy. The average set-top cable box uses around 18W when it’s off, while a cable box with DVR uses an average of 44W when it’s turned off. 

If you have more than one TV that uses DVR, you can save energy by requesting a multi-room box that allows you to use the same DVR throughout the house. 

Computer

Turning a computer off saves a lot of energy. When they are on, the average desktop computer consumes 74W, while turning it off only uses 3W. But if you don’t like to shut your computer down too often, putting it in sleep only uses 21W. 

Computer monitors can also use a lot of energy when they are on (65W for CRT, 28W for LCD), but their consumption also goes way down they are in sleep mode (12W for CRT, 1W LCD) and it’s near-zero when they are off. That means you can save a lot simply by setting your computer to go to sleep after being inactive for a certain length of time. 

Note: Sleep mode is not the same as a screensaver, which does not save any more energy than having the computer on. 

Game Consoles

The average game console uses 27W when someone is playing a game, and 23W when it’s off but ready. That might be why a Carnegie Mellon University study found that approximately 1 % of US residential electricity consumption comes from game consoles. 

According to the study, the most energy-efficient game system at the time was the Nintendo Wii, but the reason for that was because: “they are used one-third as much as the other consoles and have very low power consumption in active mode.”

Find Your Biggest Energy Hogs

There are many other devices, appliances, and products that the average person has plugged in and forgot about. You can find out which devices are energy hogs when they’re turned off with an electricity usage monitor. All you have to do is plug the monitor into the wall and then plug your device into the monitor. It will tell you how much power is being used by the device when it’s on or off, and some of them even tell you how much it costs to keep the device plugged in. 

Solutions

One way you can make things easier is by plugging several energy vampires into a power strip, which will allow you to turn several products off at once. However, you have to remember to turn the power strip off every time. Plus, when you turn this power strip on, all the devices will enter standby mode. To make things as easy as possible, you can get a smart power strip that will cut the power to an outlet when the device goes into standby mode. 

For Millenials, Gen z-ers, and beyond, the prospect of purchasing their first property is far scarier and seemingly unattainable than in previous generations. In the past, real estate was still a major purchase, but a typical household in which the father had a full-time job and the mother stayed at home had sufficient income to buy a home and raise a family.

In today’s reality, even with a dual income, couples are scraping by if able to buy a home at all. As a result, many of today’s young families are relegated to renting or squeezing into a condominium. The prospect of finding a real estate deal within their budget isn’t seriously entertained.

Unlike other industries, most people think there’s no such thing as a serious deal in real estate. But for those with good credit and solid employment that are just shy of affording a home, there is still hope!

Be diligent, follow these tips and if you’re patient, you will be able to finally make your dreams of homeownership come true.

1. For Sale By Owner

When homes are for sale by owner, you can get really lucky and find a listing that’s below market value because the seller accounts for savings on agents fees. Additionally, they are generally much more willing to negotiate, enabling you to explore terms with them to meet your budget. The trick is finding these real estate listings. The best way to be the first one with your foot in the door is by going to the big real estate websites, like Trulia and Zillow, and setting alerts for whenever a ‘for sale by owner’ property comes on the market in a desirable area.

2. Rehab Loan

A lot of young buyers could swing purchasing a home, but often what they can afford is undesirable. Understandably, they’d often prefer biding their time in a non-committal rental unit than buying an old run-down home they can’t afford to front the cash to renovate. Luckily there’s a type of loan you can apply for that allows you to incorporate renovation costs. This gives you the opportunity to hunt down great real estate bargains without having to worry about the quality of your home in the short term.

3. Foreclosures

Banks focus on money management, not property management. For this reason, in the unfortunate scenarios when people’s homes get foreclosed on, banks are willing to give significant discounts just to unload the property. However, with foreclosures, they’re a mixed bag, there are a lot of run-down properties with issues the previous owners probably couldn’t afford to fix. Work with an experienced agent and make sure you have a thorough inspection conducted so you know exactly where you stand. As mentioned in number 2, rehab loans are a great way to make a foreclosed property a viable option.

When a house has been sitting on the market for too long, the price begins to drop. Buyers will think there’s a reason that no one is buying it, and they won’t add it to their list of houses they want to see. In fact, web traffic to a listing slows down by 65% after the first three days, according to a study from Redfin. 

That’s why it’s so important to make a good first impression with your listing price. If a house is overpriced, buyers won’t give it a second thought. But you don’t want to set the price too low and lose money either. Here are a few tips to help you find the right price for your home. 

Don’t Drop The Price

A home that comes on the market at $249,000 looks a lot different than one that was on the market for $350,000 for a while before being reduced to $250,000. Buyers will question why the seller dropped the price so much. Were they trying to trick buyers into paying more than the property is really worth? Does the seller know what the actual price should be? Will the seller drop the price even lower if buyers wait? 

Lowering your price might attract some buyers, but not nearly as many as if you had just set that price, to begin with. In fact, houses that have price drops only get about half as many views online as new listings, according to Redfin.

“Even if it’s objectively a good home, if it’s been on the market for a while, many buyers will wonder if there’s something wrong with it. Once that stigma is there, it is going to be hard for a seller to get full asking price,” a Redfin agent said in the study. “If there’s already a price cut, savvy buyers start smelling blood in the water. It’s not a good situation for sellers to be in.”

Think of it this way: if you are willing to reduce the price after it’s been sitting on the market for a certain number of days, just make that reduced price the initial price. Buyers have a lot of tools available to them these days, and they can see when you are overinflating the price of a house. 

Start A Bidding War

On the other hand, if a home comes on the market at a low enough price, it can attract more buyers. Those buyers might grow attached to the property and start a bidding war. In the best-case scenario, buyers can actually increase the price of a home beyond what you ever thought you could get out of it. 

However, setting the price below what you are comfortable selling it at could come back to bite you if you end up losing money on the sale. So make sure you feel comfortable with the price you set. 

Leave Some Wiggle Room

Most buyers will want to negotiate the price even if they are already comfortable with where it is now. If you set the price $5,000 – $10,000 higher than you want to go, you can allow the buyer to “win one,” which goes a long way. 

Think of it this way: would you rather buy a house that was priced at $250,000 and you were able to haggle the price down to $240,000, or a house that was originally priced at $240,000? Even though both houses turned out to be the same price, most people would feel like they saved money by haggling, even if it’s only a small percentage of the final sale price. 

Price For Search Ranges

Many buyers shop for houses online or through apps that allow them to set a price range. So they won’t be able to see houses that are just out of their range, even if it’s only by one dollar. That’s why it’s important to set your price within common ranges. Most of the time these ranges are between big round numbers, like $100,000 – $200,000, or $250,000 – $299,999. You’ll only be shooting yourself in the foot by setting your price at $301,000 instead of $299,000. 

Setting your price below one of these big round numbers puts you in a buyer’s price range, plus it makes the price seem a lot lower than it actually is. There’s a reason songs on iTunes are only 99 cents, it’s easy to justify spending less than a dollar on a song (even if it’s only a penny less than a dollar). 

Talk To A Real Estate Agent

The best way to find the true market value of your house is by simply asking a real estate agent. They know the market conditions and how much buyers will be willing to spend on your house. Even if you’re not fully sure you want to sell yet, you can call up your local realtor and ask them how much your house would be worth if you did decide to put it on the market. You might be surprised how much they say your home is worth.