Karen Kuchins’ career selling homes long predated the pandemic. But never before has she witnessed such rapid change in market conditions. Many homes that were flying off the market during the worst of COVID-19 -- when available properties were exceptionally scarce -- are now sitting unsold for a longer period.

“For sellers, the pandemic was a bonanza -- a free-for-all. What’s happened now is a much more balanced market, with properties taking longer to go under contract,” Kuchins says.

Stacy Berman, another longtime agent, cautions sellers against arrogance about their current prospects. She also warns them not to overprice their property by pegging their list price to what their home would have fetched during the heady pandemic period.

“When picking a price, don’t look at closed comparable sales from months or years ago. Instead, look at pending sales if you can figure out what nearby houses actually sold for very recently. Often, your listing agent can help you gain this info,” Berman says.

Not only is available inventory rising, but more properties are languishing unsold for a longer-than-expected number of days -- a disheartening trend for sellers.

“More homes are becoming stale, sitting on the market for 30 days or longer without going under contract. Most buyers are willing to pay sky-high housing costs but only if the house is in really good shape,” says Desiree Bourgeois, a Redfin agent in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Bourgeois says that homeowners whose property appears dated run the risk of an overly long selling time or lowball offers from prospective buyers.

“They don’t want to spend extra money on paint or new appliances,” she says.

Here are a few pointers for sellers:

-- Stay focused on your ultimate lifestyle goals for after your sale.

Many of those currently attempting a property sale are dreaming of a delightful retirement. While some wish to travel, others have a less expensive vision. They simply seek to downsize to a much smaller house or a condo where they have fewer upkeep obligations. Others want to live closer to their grandchildren.

“Lots of retirees want to escape to a better climate,” says Sid Davis, a Utah real estate broker and author of “Adding Value to Your Home.”

Staying focused on retirement plans should help keep your spirits up as you do the hard work of preparing your property for market. To maintain your focus, Davis says you may wish to take a brief vacation to the area where you’d like to live -- whether that’s a foreign country or a nearby town. A less costly approach is to attach a photo of your ideal destination to your table or laptop where you can keep it in mind.

-- Visit brand-new property in your locale.

Have you lived in your current home for many years? If so, you’re likely very comfortable with your interior design and see no need to update it. But that’s usually a mistake, says Donna Clark, a residential real estate agent based in Reno, Nevada.

One way to picture the sort of decor contemporary buyers prefer is to tour model homes in new subdivisions.

“This is a shortcut to seeing the kinds of colors and designs younger buyers look for. You’ll also see how well a house can look when it’s free of clutter, such as stacks of mail and magazines,” Clark says.

-- Make a list of improvements that could help you sell well.

Homeowners who are eager to sell should view key improvements as a wise investment rather than a needless sacrifice.

“A house is like a business. Sometimes you have to put some money into it to get more money out of it,” Clark says.

Obviously, you’re unlikely to recoup your outlays for major improvements like putting on an addition or installing a new fireplace. But Clark says several less-expensive upgrades could be extremely helpful in promoting the sale of your home.

For instance, she says you’ll want to refinish hardwood floors if they’re beat up. And you’ll want to replace carpeting in an out-of-date color.

“I had some clients with bright teal carpeting in their living room. It was clean and perfectly serviceable. But buyers who looked at the house couldn’t get past all that teal. After the owners replaced it with light taupe carpeting, their house sold right away,” Clark says.

Likewise, she says most sellers with vibrantly colored walls are well advised to repaint them in neutral tones.

“Pink walls don’t belong in any house you’re trying to sell. Nor do walls in deep red, vivid green or periwinkle blue,” Clark says.

-- Avoid playing pricing games.

Many would-be sellers intent on moving reject the pricing recommendation of their listing agent. In pursuit of more money, they decide to “test the market” with a higher price than their agent has proposed. After all, they reason, they could always cut the price later if necessary.

But this seemingly logical idea usually backfires, Clark says, because most buyers are acutely sensitive to housing values. They respond negatively to an overpriced property and may become so annoyed they won’t even visit the place.

“The first two weeks after you list your house are key. If you don’t price it right from the start, possible buyers will lose interest. Then even after you drop the price you may have to wait a long, long time to get it sold,” she says.

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

During the pandemic home-buying frenzy, an accountant in her 50s stretched to buy a suburban house she hoped would one day serve as her retirement retreat. To beat rival buyers, she bid well over the asking price and waived her right to a home inspection.

But after she moved in, the ranch-style property revealed many unwelcome and undisclosed surprises.

"It was devastating to realize how much costly work I needed to make the house habitable," the accountant says. "Some of its shortcomings make it far more expensive to live there than I calculated. My buyer's remorse is total."

As it happens, the house built in 2009 already needs a new roof and air conditioning system -- improvements the accountant can't afford without drawing down her retirement fund. The place also needs a new water heater, along with replacement toilets in two bathrooms and termite treatment.

"I might have sued the sellers and their real estate agent for lack of disclosure. But I figured winning such a case would have been a long shot. Also, the listing agent lives across the cul-de-sac, and I feared a neighborhood brawl," the accountant says.

After pondering her options, the owner settled on a plan. She'd sell the house as soon as possible, covering the cost of mandatory fixes -- including termite treatment, a new water heater and replacement toilets. But she would decline to replace the roof and air conditioning system, though with full disclosure to all potential purchasers.

Meanwhile, the accountant began scouting out a low-maintenance house that wouldn't deplete her retirement funds with costly repairs. She would be willing to accept a smaller place in move-in condition. However, for this purchase she would insist on an in-depth home inspection.

James Hughes, a Rutgers University expert on U.S. housing trends, doesn't know this accountant, but he endorses her dream of finding a move-in-ready property that offers a low cost of living -- especially because energy and insurance costs are rising rapidly.

"In the past, homebuyers focused primarily on their monthly mortgage payments. Now they're thinking more about the larger financial picture," Hughes says.

Christopher Leinberger, a real estate professor emeritus at George Washington University, says buyers are increasingly willing to pay a premium price for a home in a walkable area where grocery stores, restaurants and movie theaters can be reached on foot. More current buyers prioritize a prime location over raw square footage.

"Right now, through development or rebuilding, there are an increasing number of great pedestrian places available to homebuyers," Leinberger says.

Are you a would-be buyer seeking a move-in ready home that also offers low operating costs? If so, these few pointers could prove useful:

-- Consider the utility expenses for the home you'd like to buy.

"Anyone who hasn't noticed rising utility costs has been sleepwalking through the past decade," Hughes says.

Perhaps you're enamored of a brand-new Georgian-style house with five bedrooms and a home theater equipped with an oversized TV. Or maybe you fancy a big old Victorian with lots of architectural flourishes -- a house built during the Gilded Age in the late 1800s.

Either way, Hughes urges you to take into account the costs of heating and cooling any large place you plan to buy.

"Be sure to ask the current owners to give you two to three years' worth of utility bills for the property. Notice the trend, keeping in mind that energy costs will undoubtedly keep rising," Hughes says.

-- Take upkeep costs into account.

If you buy a brand-new house from a builder with high construction standards, you can often expect relatively low repair and appliance-replacement costs for a period of five to 10 years. But chances are you'll be less lucky if you purchase an older home, which could be especially expensive to maintain if it's large.

"When you need a new roof on a big house, that's going to be extremely costly, as would be a new cooling system. So be sure you could handle those expenditures," Hughes says.

He also recommends you think twice about the upkeep costs of owning a house with a lot of wood trim and siding, which will probably need extensive repainting every few years.

One way to gain help in approximating future upkeep costs is to be sure your home inspection is done by a well-trained inspector. One source of referrals: the American Society of Home Inspectors (ashi.org).

Are you considering a property with a large yard and expecting to hire a landscaping service company to keep up the grounds? In that case, Hughes says you can assume the cost of yard work will increase in coming years.

"Rising energy and labor costs mean the landscapers will have to charge more to take on your place," Hughes says.

-- Graph the trend in homeowner association fees.

Whether you're planning to move to a gated community in the suburbs or a condo-apartment building in an urban setting, the odds are you'll be subject to a monthly fee to cover the costs of maintenance, security and other common expenses.

Before you commit to any property with a monthly management charge, Hughes says you should get detailed information on these charges -- going back multiple years. Then examine the statistics carefully to see if inflation has been a major factor pushing up these costs. If so, he says you should assume this trend will continue in coming years.

"Nowadays when buying a home, you really have to scour the place for expensive defects and crunch a lot of numbers on costs," Hughes says.

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

Married math teachers have been plotting a starter home purchase ever since they met at a college graduation dance five years ago. But they’re still stuck in a one-bedroom rental.

“We have secure jobs and make decent money teaching. But for all our math skills, we can’t make the numbers work to buy one of those traditional single-family houses with a big backyard and a two-car garage,” the husband says.

The teachers have no plans to raise children. But they love their three English springer spaniels and would be delighted to own a large parcel of fenced space where the dogs could frolic freely. Still, they’ve concluded that due to stubbornly high mortgage rates, a traditional house in their favored area is currently beyond their reach.

“At this point we’ve compromised our goal and started looking at townhouses near the school where we teach. We’re especially focused on one new community called King Farm. It’s located in Rockville, Maryland, and it’s very walkable. It’s also close to where our parents live,” the wife says.

Townhouses in King Farm are hardly cheap. But as the couple have observed, they typically sell for at least $200,000 less than detached properties in the same area. And due to their budget constraints, that price differential makes all the difference.

The math teachers are both in their 20s -- members of the Gen Z generation, born between 1997 and 2012. Many older members of this cohort are struggling to buy their first home. And they’re intensely frustrated by the high cost of housing, both rental and purchase. With regret, many such buyers must compromise their goals.

Marc Angelo, a Re/Max broker in Portland, Oregon, doesn’t know the Gen Z couple in this true story. But he says most such young buyers would rather acquire a diminutive townhouse in a walkable neighborhood than an equally priced but much larger detached property in an exurban area.

“Young buyers want to live around people with energy and ideas -- a place where they can walk to a grocery store and restaurants. To get all that at an affordable price, a townhouse can be the perfect solution,” Angelo says.

Here are a few pointers for those focused on a townhouse purchase:

-- Look for a place with an expansive interior.

Nowadays, most buyers strongly favor an open, airy, and bright home. But many townhouses, especially older ones, have relatively few windows and are narrow from side to side and deep from front to back, says Tom Early, a veteran Ohio real estate broker.

“To get a more open feeling, try to find a townhouse that’s wider than average. Also, look for one where the rooms are square rather than rectangular and one with larger-than-average windows. However, remember that big windows typically translate to higher energy costs,” says Early, a past president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org).

Another way to obtain a more open, airy feeling in a townhouse is to buy one with high ceilings.

“Fortunately, lots of the new townhouses have ceilings that are at least 10 feet or higher. That way the rooms seem larger, and people don’t feel as cramped,” Early says.

-- Remember that ample parking is important.

Newer townhouses are often built to give each unit a garage. But what about the visitor parking?

“It’s important for townhouse owners to feel confident that their friends and family members will not face lots of hassles when they come over to visit,” Early says.

He recommends that the best way to scope out the parking situation near a townhouse is to ask people already living there about their experience with parking.

“You should get unvarnished opinions about all the pros and cons of life in the community through informal conversations with the neighbors there. It can be particularly helpful to go back to the area without your real estate agent at your side,” Early says.

-- Search for a friendly townhouse community.

In nearly all townhouse communities, residents are bound together through membership in a residents' association. As Early says, the quality of leadership in that group can make a major difference for residents there.

"The point is to search for a community where people can reach consensus harmoniously, rather than through arguments and petty disagreements,” Early says.

Those who bond together in a well-functioning association set aside money for major expenses, like the replacement of a roof or renovation of a pool house. Otherwise, everyone living in the community could be hit with a special assessment, which can mean a large addition to your monthly homeowners’ fees.

To investigate the operations of a townhouse association, Early suggests you ask for minutes of its last three meetings to see if major disputes are brewing within the organization.

-- Always focus on a strong location.

What constitutes a location where you can reasonably expect strong or rising property values? Eric Tyson, a personal finance expert and co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies,” urges you to look for a neighborhood served by high-quality public schools, even if you have no plans for children.

Even those who would prefer a detached house might consider buying a townhouse in a coveted urban community if that’s all they can afford in their favorite area. That’s because over time, as Tyson says, you can anticipate that the townhouse in the premier area will be a better investment than a traditional single-family home in a weaker area.

“For real estate, one reality remains constant through time and economic cycles. That is that location tops all other factors in defining value,” Tyson says.

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