It’s always uncomfortable when the market shifts. People don’t move houses on a dime. There’s planning involved; sometimes it is months in the works. Even as the main chores are tackled- decluttering, odd jobs that need to be wrapped up, some prep painting- the rest of life also gets juggled around marketing a property. If people have kids leaving for college, it’s simply easier to get them out of the house and start a listing in September.
But the expectations for what will happen in September are derived from the experiences underway in August and before. If, up until that point, homes have been selling within one to two weeks, or basically right away, then sellers will base their plans on having to be out of their home in conjunction with receiving a prompt response from the buyer pool. The conditional scenario runs something like: If we get an interested party right away, how fast can we be out of the house?
The planning done by looking to the past can draw people up short when the interest rates rise mid-September, and the showings are choked off. A few weeks go by before the pattern is confirmed. This wasn’t the plan! And yet it is the present that rules what is to come. Being nimble and responsive applies in every market. But in a slowing market, the adjustments are most uncomfortable.
