Sold Above Listing Price? It Happened to Me, Said 49% of Sellers

It’s a good time to be a seller.

Eighty-two percent of recent sellers accepted an offer at listing price or above, according to a recent Homes.com survey. One-third of sellers sold at listing price, while 49% sold above and 27% of sellers were offered $10,000 or more over the listing price. While this is good news for sellers, a lack of inventory on the market has been delaying some would-be sellers from listing their property, as they are afraid they won’t be able to find a new property to move into.

However, 86% of sellers who had planned to buy a new-to-them property said they were able to purchase a home on the market to move into, while 14% opted to rent as they continued their search. For those who hadn’t planned to buy a property, some moved into their secondary home (24%) or had already purchased a new home build (19%) or began renting because they wanted to (11%). An additional 9% moved in with family or friends.

Yet, homes are not staying on the market very long. More than half of sellers had less than 10 showings, with 27% reporting five or less showings. Not surprisingly, 47% of houses were on the market less than four weeks, with 22% selling in two weeks or less. Only 26% of homes were on the market after two months. With this much demand, some sellers tightened their requests. Twenty-eight percent required all-cash payments, no contingencies and/or less than 30 days to close and 14% sold their house “as-is.” Yet, 56% did agree to update, upgrade or repair features, which generally paid off, as the home sold for more.

For some sellers, they had no plans to sell. Eleven percent put their homes on the market once they saw how quickly homes were selling, in hopes to cater to the demand, while 5% had unsolicited offers on their home and went for it.