Earlier this year, we embarked on a new project: Building our own home. This meant we had to sell our current residence. On March 6, 2023 we listed the house for sale. I’d love to share my experience navigating the post-COVID market with you.
Facing uncertainty in the real estate market
Remember how unbelievable the real estate market was during the pandemic? Overbidding was quite common and houses were fetching outrageously high prices. Undoubtedly, it was a seller’s market.
But in the post-COVID era, I wasn’t sure what the state of the market would be. I'd read a few articles here and there to get a feel for things, so I knew it would be wise to wait a bit before putting my house up for sale. After gathering more information, I realized that there were many opinions about the uncertainty of the post-Covid real estate market, not to mention a surge in interest rates.
Why I opted to work with a RE/MAX real estate broker
Following a phone call with my RE/MAX real estate broker, I gained valuable insights about when the ideal time to list my home with RE/MAX would be. While there’s no exact science for the real estate market, I learned that timing played a vital role. After all, it only takes one buyer to close the deal, right?
I was excited to work with a real estate broker, mainly because doing so would remove much of the stress of planning everything: taking photos, scheduling visits, getting feedback from visitors, organizing paperwork, and managing counter-offers. I wanted to free myself from performing these tasks so that I could concentrate on my work and our new self-build project (itself a very time-consuming endeavour).
The process of selling my home post-COVID
I found myself feeling more stressed this time than when I sold my other house during COVID. I had yet to realize just how busy house visits can be. All in all, I hadn't set any expectations, and I told myself that it wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing if the house stayed on the market for a few months. However, on the first day of the listing, we got a call to visit the house right away. More followed. In no time at all, we had five scheduled visits.
However, the feedback that came from these first visits weren't necessarily positive, or at least they didn’t lead us to believe they would be making an offer. My stress levels were peaking after these visits. But then, on the fourth day of putting up our house for sale, we got an offer in!
All in all, this was my experience selling my house. I can’t help but feel incredibly fortunate to have found the right buyer at the right time. As mentioned earlier, timing is everything. Placing my trust in the expertise of my real estate broker made a huge difference in knowing what price to list the house at and negotiating when it came time to make a counteroffer.
