Should you sell your home now, or wait until spring?

By Mimi Vanderhaven

There’s a phenomenon in real estate that when the weather cools, so do home sales. People on the fence about whether to sell their home suspect that waiting for a brisker spring market is the smart play.

And while that may have been shrewd in years past, with the current topsy-turvy market one thing is clear: all bets are off.

To find out why, I caught up with Denise Zervos, who along with her husband, Mark, owns The Neighborhood Experts at Platinum Real Estate.

“There are several valid reasons to put your home on the market in the fourth quarter,” she says. “One is money. If you want to get top dollar, you’ll do that with fewer homes on the market competing against yours, and there will be more homes as soon as spring hits. We currently have a low number of homes on the market, which has driven prices up.”

Another reason to sell now is we don’t know what interest rates are going to do.

“It looks as though they will start to rise in 2022, and that means buyers’ purchasing power will begin to wane,” she says.

Lastly, people frequently say they’d sell now, but don’t have anywhere to move to.

“The good news there is that the local temporary housing market has adjusted to meet the growing number of folks who sell and haven’t found a new home,” she says. “There are new luxury apartments, such as 4th & Park at Pinecrest, that are opening. Many of them have flexible term leasing agreements. And there are some darling Air BNBs that are turning into executive homes. The bottom line is, in the end you’re better off selling and moving to temporary housing than waiting until next year’s uncertain market. You know what they say about a bird in the hand.”

Platinum Real Estate has offices in Northeast Ohio, Columbus and Florida. The Platinum Center headquarters is located at 7200 Center Street in Mentor. To get more information, call 216-990-2100 or 440-974-SALE and visit YourNeighborhoodExpert.com.