Should You Sell Now or Wait?

For today’s post, I’m going to share my screen with you to show you how the property value calculator featured on the Quintin Group’s website works. It’s a neat tool you can use to help decide whether you should sell your home now or wait out the market. Many people are unsure of how they should proceed, thinking that if they wait, their homes will appreciate more and they’ll get more money from their sales.

Let’s say that you’ve had your home on the market for $650,000, and a buyer makes an offer for $575,000. Let’s also say that you counter that offer with $625,000 and the buyer ups their offer to $600,000 but isn’t willing to come any higher. In this scenario, $625,000 is the lowest you’ll go; you can wait out the market.

This is reminiscent of a recent client’s situation. I asked them how much time they wanted to wait out the market and collect their rent in the meantime (it was a rental property). They said that they weren’t in any rush and could wait a couple of years.

So, we used our online calculator to show them their net return if they waited two years to put the property on the market, entering in their annual costs to own the property and their rental income/expenses. All factors considered, their net return after two years would be -$32,400, meaning that’s how much it would cost them to maintain the property. Since they were holding out for $25,000 on the property, it wouldn’t be worth it for them to wait two years to sell.

That example was assuming there was a 0% rate of appreciation. We could then use the calculator to show them how the numbers would change with a 3% rate of appreciation. Even with that rate, the home’s market value would only rise to roughly $604,000. At 5% appreciation, the home’s market value jumps to around $630,000. That seems ideal, but remember that they would have to wait two years and see a 5% appreciation rate for it to be worth it.

If you’re in a similar situation wherein you’re deciding whether it’s better to sell now or wait for the market to go up, refer to our website to use our property value calculator and all our other helpful tools. And don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you have. I’d be happy to help.