This week’s Central Marin broker’s tour was 3 pages long, which is extraordinarily light. There were literally only 10 single-family homes open in all of San Rafael, and only 2 condos. With interest rates having come down recently and few other homes to compete against, as a seller you might be thinking it could be a good time to put your house on the market. Unless you’ve got a fixer, I think it isn’t a good time to list because right now the biggest fish in the water are the contractors looking for a project. The families who pay the most money for homes won’t be circling the bait and biting until the water/weather gets a little warmer.
Of the San Rafael homes on the market, only two are in Terra Linda. One has been on the market for 30 days and they have reduced their price. The other has only been out there for 7 days, asking over $1.5 million and I think they’ve got a decent shot of selling because the house is very nice, spacious, and upgraded. If they waited another 2-3 months, I’m guessing they’d find several buyers competing against each other for the house. Right now, they’ll be fortunate to attract one buyer. On the flip side, if you are a seriously motivated buyer, while the pickins are slim, if you find the house you want now is the time to jump on it because of the lack of competition among buyers.
Last year at this time I was working with a seller and contractor and we were rushing to get the house ready for the spring. My seller wanted to hit the market at just the right time, and as fate would have it the contractor completed his work and we had the property staged in time to hit the market on 4/3. Our timing could not have been better. We attracted one great buyer who was willing to make a pre-emptive offer $50,000 over our asking price! Rather than wait until after our first open house to see if we could line up multiple offers, which did not seem likely because last year the buyer pool dried up very quickly, we took the all cash no contingency offer and closed in 15 days.
Buying and selling homes is a blend of art and a science. Timing is everything. If you are in the market to buy, the winter months in Marin are truly some of the best times to buy because you often can avoid multiple offer situations. If you are a seller, you might want to wait until the crop of spring buyers starts to bloom.