Smart Moves

Many would-be home sellers are torn on timing. Should they put their place on the market by the end of this year or wait until the first quarter of 2022?

“As with the stock market, timing your home sale is a thorny matter. You have to weigh financial factors along with your personal moving plans,” says Sid Davis, author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home.”

As the country gradually emerges from COVID-19, planning seems all the more tricky for would-be sellers because many are reinventing their post-pandemic lives and reassembling their family gatherings.

“Especially now, homeowners hate the massive inconvenience of strangers trooping through their property ... They have a huge preference for an after-holiday sale,” says Davis, an independent real estate broker.

However, selling late this year has some positives associated with it, says Fred Meyer, a longtime broker-appraiser who lists homes around Harvard University.

“Mortgage rates are now lingering near unbelievable lows. They could rise steeply in 2022. This could somewhat weaken the sellers’ hand next year,” Meyer says.

But housing economists doubt sellers who postpone until early 2022 will miss the most opportune time to market their home.

At Realtor.com, chief economist Danielle Hale anticipates that the seller’s market will last well into 2022.

“Home prices continue to rise due to a mismatch between supply and demand, stemming from a decade-long shortage of homebuilding,” Hale says.

On rare occasions, a wise listing agent will recommend that sellers briefly defer their year-end sale. But Mark Nash, the author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home, says homeowners with a compelling need to move before the end of the year should resist postponement.

“Remember how costly it is to hold off. The carrying costs for a vacant home include not only mortgage payments but also insurance and utility expenses,” he says.

Even so, those not under time pressure to move this December may wish to wait until January, February or even beyond to market their place. Here are a few pointers for sellers who intend to wait:

-- Seek to find a seasoned listing agent.

No matter where your house is located, it’s crucial to hire a listing agent with an established track record.

“An agent who’s been through at least 10 post-holiday periods should be especially good at identifying the best week and day to put your property on the market,” says Nash.

-- Embark on a cleaning blitz.

Once your New Year’s celebrations are behind you, your first challenge should be to remove any hints of holiday decor.

“Trying to show a property with holiday decor still in place signals to buyers that you’re not really ready to move,” Nash says.

After the decor is gone, Nash urges sellers to go on a cleaning binge, purging the property of all superfluous items and then making the whole place dust- and spot-free.

Sellers lacking a design-trained eye might consider engaging a home stager, a professional who helps reduce and then rearrange sellers’ furnishings for maximum appeal.

Even without a stager, most people can improve their interior through a few simple steps.

“One way to make a room look better is to remove up to half the furniture and then float your sofa and other pieces at an angle away from the walls,” Nash says.

-- Repaint your walls in a lighter tone.

Are you a homeowner who loves bold designer paint colors? That’s fine during your tenure in the property. But once your place is heading for the market, such colors are a poor choice, especially for a wintertime sale.

“I call colors like magenta, mustard and chocolate brown ‘commitment colors.’ ... (T)hey’re a bad idea for wintertime sellers because they make a place look even drearier on cloudy days,” Nash says.

However, when repainting your walls in advance of a sale, you needn’t pick sterile white to lighten and neutralize your look. Good choices include light grays or linenlike tones with just a hint of another pleasing color, such as very pale yellow.

-- Create a festive atmosphere around your wintertime sale.

Clearly, enthusiasm is in shorter supply during January and February than in the weeks leading up to the winter holidays. So it’s often helpful for you and your listing agent to develop a creative marketing strategy for your winter sale.

Nash recalls the true story of an Illinois couple whose listing agent was puzzled about how to attract home shoppers to what he describes as their “blah suburban house” that went up for sale one February.

What finally worked was a “Garden of Eden” theme, in keeping with the fact that the home’s owners were avid gardeners. Though their flowerbeds were buried in snow, the agent asked for photos showing their flowers blooming in summer. These were enlarged to poster size, mounted on tall easels and placed next to windows throughout the property.

The theme "created buzz among neighbors, real estate agents and buyers ... We all loved the break from winter because it was so hopeful, bright and cheerful,” Nash remembers.

Creative marketing won’t make up for an overly high price tag or a rundown property. But it can help entice shoppers -- and their agents -- into visiting a home they might otherwise have ignored.

“The simple goal of creative marketing is to encourage talk about your house and get eyeballs over to see it,” Nash says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Every year, researchers at the national realty company Zillow survey homebuyers on the factors that most impact their choices. This year, they were struck by an unusual finding: Many buyers picked property with their pets in mind.

“Pets are widely considered part of the American family, so it follows that they can factor into moving decisions,” says Manny Garcia, a population scientist at Zillow.

The new Zillow research, drawn from its “Consumer Housing Trends Report,” shows that those currently planning a property purchase are more likely than in the past to be pet owners, which is affecting buying trends.

Indeed, Garcia says pet ownership can be the “catalyst for a move, along with other factors, such as remote work and shifting family priorities.”

Buyers with pets typically want a property with substantial internal and external space.

“Pet owners are more likely to buy homes larger than 3,000 square feet and with at least four bedrooms. They consider outdoor space very or extremely important,” according to Garcia.

Daniel Boitel, a real estate agent specializing in luxury home sales, says the pandemic, along with an increase in pet ownership, has helped to revive interest in communities with large properties that were previously considered less desirable because of their outlying location.

“Buyers with furry friends want a property that’s move-in ready -- ideally one with a large, flat and fenced-in yard,” Boitel says. He’s currently working with a family of seven who own two oversized Labrador retrievers. They’re searching for a spacious place that accommodates both pets and small children.

He's found that the pet-owning parents of young kids typically want similar home features for the kids as for their animals.

“For the entire family, if possible, they wish to live on a dead-end street that’s quiet and sheltered from traffic. A cul-de-sac is perfect, as is a fenced-in yard,” Boitel says.

Most real estate markets are less fiercely competitive than they were during the worst of the pandemic. But the reality is that prices continue to escalate, although more slowly, and nearly all home buyers must confront trade-offs in lifestyle to attain the most they can afford.

Where you choose to live has countless implications, says Doro Kiley, a certified life coach who’s helped many clients navigate real estate transitions. She urges clients to make a home choice within the context of their overall life plans.

“Always begin by thinking about the end product -- what you’d really like as opposed to what you would settle for,” Kiley says.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Consider the pros and cons of a large yard.

Recalling their own easygoing childhoods, some parents assume their kids need a similar setting to be happy. But what was important in your formative years isn’t necessarily vital for your children now, says Eric Tyson, a personal finance specialist and co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies.”

“These days, children are much more heavily scheduled with sports, lessons and numerous other activities,” Tyson says.

Now that most kids are back to their in-person classrooms, he encourages parents to think less about yard size than the outdoor features of a neighborhood as a whole, such as parks and open space.

Surprisingly, neighborhoods where yards are smaller are often more child-friendly than those with oversized grounds.

“It’s good for children to live close to their neighborhood friends. That way they don’t have to be driven around to see playmates,” Tyson says.

-- Place a premium on a floor plan that works well for your family.

Tyson says it’s more important for families with young children to have a floor plan that encourages togetherness than to own a property with an exceptionally large yard.

“Many people only use a formal dining room on major holidays, such as Thanksgiving. But a family room connected to an eat-in kitchen is used all year long,” he says.

Large, comfortable common rooms -- often called “great rooms”-- help draw children out of their bedrooms, thereby allowing parents to monitor their kids at homework time, for example.

“It’s important to know if your kids are spending too much time playing video games rather than doing their work,” Tyson says.

-- Think of interior as well as exterior space.

Newly built houses with a wealth of elbow room typically feature spacious master bedroom suites. In such houses, secondary bedrooms, designed for children and guests, are usually much smaller.

But Tyson says it’s more important for families to have an adequate number of bedrooms than a luxurious master suite.

“People who have fond memories of sharing a bedroom with a sibling may be fine with that sort of setup. However, nowadays most buyers really want a separate bedroom for every kid, so all the children can get enough sleep, even if they have different school schedules,” he says.

-- Realize that a two-story house should give you more space for the money.

Many current buyers favor single-level living. Those who’ve hit middle age or beyond are especially likely to prefer a one-story house that won’t compel them to rely on stairs.

But Tyson says people with school-age children might wish to consider the advantages of living on two levels. That’s because it’s easier to contain the noise and mess of growing children if their bedrooms are separated from the family’s common living space.

With a two-story house, parents can entertain guests on the first level while their kids are playing upstairs. Also, young families can typically get more space for the money in a two-story house.

“In most areas, the key component of housing costs are land costs. Because two-story houses require less land, you usually get more house for the same price,” Tyson says. (To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

It’s not only food, energy and prescription prices that are soaring. As the pandemic eases, landlords, freed from government constraint, have become emboldened to raise rents to startling levels.

“It’s a punch in the gut when you open that email from your rental office demanding a double-digit increase if you renew your lease in 2022,” says Tom Early, a consumer advocate and longtime real estate broker.

Many apartment dwellers are also fed up with the limits of life in tight quarters -- made glaringly obvious during the worst of COVID-19.

The good news is that a gradual rebalancing of the real estate market is making it somewhat easier for first-time buyers with stable jobs and solid credit scores to find a home at a reasonable price.

“For many months, homeowners wishing to sell have exercised near total domination. With bidding wars galore, it’s been a seller’s market beyond belief. But that’s starting to change,” says Early, who twice served as president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org).

Inflationary fears, including extraordinary recent increases in property prices, continue to trouble would-be buyers. Yet as the pandemic eases, consumer confidence rose in October, buoyed by higher wages and lower unemployment.

“Confidence has now risen to a three-month high,” says Steve Odland, CEO of the Conference Board (conference-board.org), which tracks consumer sentiment.

Of course, it’s never easy for wannabe owners to meet all the challenges involved in making a first purchase. Home prices continue to rise, albeit more slowly, and buyers in popular neighborhoods will likely continue to confront rival bidders for at least part of next year. In addition, mortgage rates could rise significantly in 2022.

Here are a few pointers for determined purchasers:

-- Search for the best quality neighborhood you can afford.

Many who’ve felt trapped in a rental unit for years get very excited when they first start shopping for a place to buy. That’s because almost any property with more square footage, a yard and a garage looks alluring to renters.

But it’s a mistake to let yourself fall in love with a particular house before you’ve checked out alternative neighborhoods to find the best one you can afford, says Michael Knight, an Illinois financial adviser affiliated with the Garrett Planning Network (garrettplanningnetwork.com).

“It’s not uncommon for people to choose a neighborhood too quickly,” says Knight, who recommends you compare several areas before making your pick.

To help with your due diligence, he says it’s wise to sit down for an informal chat with an agent who specializes in the sale of real estate in each community on your short list.

Which neighborhoods are most likely to hold or gain value in the future? Ashley Richardson, a longtime agent, says access to high-quality schools is one critical factor, along with quality public transit nearby.

“Millennials don’t want to be trapped in their cars. Maybe they’re working from home currently. But that could change if their bosses call them back to the office,” says Richardson, who sells property through the Long & Foster realty firm.

Also, she says buyers of all ages -- including boomers who are semi-retired or retired -- want to live in an area where they can easily walk to shops and restaurants. This preference for walkability has continued despite the pandemic.

How can you quickly assess whether a neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly? One way is to visit a website that rates communities for their “walk scores.” Just go to walkscore.com and type in the address of a house in the neighborhood.

-- Choose a house large enough to meet your needs for a lengthy period.

Before the pandemic, many buyers were focused on “flipping,” the practice of buying properties in hopes that they’d appreciate quickly and could then be sold for a profit.

But many who tried this game failed, teaching others a cautionary lesson about how tough it is to make speculation work.

“Forget about flipping, especially when it comes to buying a first home for your family. In any case, you wouldn’t want your children changing schools too often,” Early says.

-- Research property values before shaping an offer.

Once you’ve pinpointed a solid neighborhood and found a dream property there, you may be ready to make a bid. But Richardson says that before deciding how much to offer, you should obtain some facts and figures on recent sales in the area.

“Just as home sellers need to inform themselves on market values before pricing a property, so do buyers need to consider recent sales before shaping their bid,” she says.

To judge the realistic value of a property you wish to buy, ask your agent for statistics on homes that have sold recently -- the fresher the data, the better.

Are you seeking to buy your dream property in a popular area and know you’ll face rival bidders? In that case, Richardson says you may wish to add a small monetary sweetener to help you outdo the others.

“You don’t want to overshoot the value of the house by a huge amount. But you may wish to add perhaps $1,000 to $2,000 to your bid. If you truly love the place you’ve found, that’s not a lot of money when spread over all the years you’ll be living there,” she says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)