The Best Day to List a Home

You have been diligent in preparing your home for sale. You have done all of the necessary repairs, you have furnished the house perfectly for showings, and you have created a flexible schedule so potential buyers can see your home consistently and easily. Nevertheless, you now need a strategy to list your home at the perfect time, so it sells as quickly and profitably as possible.
 
So when should you list your home? In the middle of the week is the most popular answer, but keep reading for specifics.

When it comes to timing, summer is thought to be the best season of the year to list a home for sale. Specifically, May and June seem to be agents’ preferred summer months to put a home on the market. Simply put, these months present the most hungry home buyers to sellers like you than any other time of the year. However, homes go on the market year-round because there are always potential buyers, and not every seller has the luxury or desire to wait until the warmest months to list their home for sale. That is why seasoned real estate agents like Lesli Ray have strategies for navigating the market year-round, and one of those strategies is listing a home on the perfect day of the week.

Let’s cut to the chase: Thursday is the best day to list a house for sale. However, this has less to do with Thursday and more to do with the weekend because real estate is all about the weekend. In the world of reality, Sunday is the prime day for open houses. The weekend is when most clientele have the availability to tour homes. This is why homes listed on Sunday get the most views online from potential home buyers, but this is not the same as potential buyers actually touring a home. If a home is listed on Sunday, there is likely not enough time for an interested buyer to tour a home before their weekend comes to a close.

Most people are busiest on the weekend touring homes they have already been advertised or, of course, enjoying other plans. Listing on a Sunday gives buyers a full week to consider other competing options, lose interest, or simply forget about the home. This is why homes listed for sale on Sundays take the longest to sell. On average, they remain on the housing market eight days longer than homes listed mid-week. Furthermore, homes listed on the weekend were less likely to sell above the asking price. All of these reasons are why only 13% of homes are listed on Sundays.

The second-worst day to list a home is Monday for similar reasons. Buyers have a full work week and more competing options to distract them. You would be smart to avoid listing your house for sale too early or late in the week, and a seasoned real estate agent like Lesli Ray can help you avoid such a mistake.

Thursday is the day most choose to list their homes for sale. These homes usually sell five days faster than homes listed on the weekend, and in an average housing market, a house listed on a Thursday will sell somewhere between 90 and 180 days (however, lately, homes are selling within days, not weeks). Homes listed on Thursdays also tend to sell close to (or, in the current market, above) the original asking price. On average, homes listed midweek sell for nearly 18% more than those listed on other days of the week.

Thursday is the best day to list a house for sale because it leads into the weekend. Most potential buyers are actually touring the houses they have researched during the week on the weekends. Studies have found that most people begin planning their Saturdays and Sundays on Thursdays. Listing too early makes a home forgettable by the weekend and extinguishes the momentum of a showing on Saturday or Sunday while listing too late runs into plans potential buyers have already made for the weekend. Listing midweek, however, gives people the opportunity to see the listing, talk to their real estate agent, and schedule a showing for the weekend. Thursday is the perfect day to list.

Of course, some buyers like to house-hunt on weeknights, but listing on a Thursday still gives them a chance to take a peek without delaying the listing before the busy weekend. For those who want a very precise strategy, mid-morning or early evening are the best times of day to list. Ideally, you would list your home on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. or 5 p.m., when users are searching for homes online before or after work.

When it comes to fine-tuning the home sales process with perfect timing, Thursday is the best day to list a house. Listing your home on Thursdays can make the sale of your home faster and more profitable. Thursdays lead into the busy real estate weekend filled with open houses and available buyers. Conversely, Sunday is the worst day of the week to list for sale because it conflicts with buyers who have already made plans and puts your home in competition with other homes listed too late or too early in the week. Midweek is the perfect time to aim to list your home for sale, and a seasoned real estate agent is the best person to help you do so.

Reach out to agent Lesli Ray when you are ready to list your Austin home for sale.