I last sold in 2006 and it went to the first looker, but that was still two,weeks after we listed. Back then real estate was still hot in Florida, but slowing a little....

It was our snowbird condo and we were not in residence at the time, so it didn't seem very long to me. I'm sure if we had been prepping for walk-thrus, I would not have wanted it to last even two weeks.

My house went on the market in February this year -23 days from list to close. It was very quick!

The day it was listed was a Saturday morning - we had a surprise snowstorm that dumped about six inches. So I didn't think I'd have any showings. But the next morning the agents started calling, we had 14 showings and by the following day two full-price offers. The market was crazy here because there was very little inventory.

Two years! We listed 3 days before the 2008 crash. Even tho it was so very frustrating, I did get into an uncluttering, tidying up routine every morning and it is still habit that I find easy.

4 days. We close in a week. Almost too quick as my new home isn't done so we will be in a hotel for at least 6 weeks.

But it was either sell at the most favorable time of the year and risk being in a hotel, or wait until the new house was done, then put our current home on the market. That would have been a lot more convenient, but more uncertain.

Our first house sold to the first buyer about 5 days after we listed it. From listing to close was about a month. We moved into a rental for 3 months as our new house was not ready.

Our second/last house took about 8 months. We were building a new house about 300 miles away so we had time. It was 2001. We had a few strikes against us. It was at the upper end of the market for the area. Locally two very large employers of potential buyers were laying 100's of people off. There was an oversupply of houses in this price range in the area. There was new construction in the same price range adjacent to our neighborhood. Finally 9-11 happened which really hurt the real estate market for awhile. We first tried FSBO for a couple of months since we had time. We then listed it for 3-4 months. We came close with one buyer, but she was living in Australia and just unwilling to pay our price. She had relatives telling her it was worth every penny, but she would not budge. We were unwilling to take her price because we had time to sell and didn't know the market would get worse (9-11). We finally used an auction service to market and sell it. This allowed us to set the closing date for the end of the year when our new house would be finished and avoid two moves. We ended up selling it for what we wanted and made a small profit. We felt extremely lucky given the local real estate market at the time.

Our first place we sold in 2007 and we had an offer after the first viewing. Fell through and we had an offer the third viewing. We were on the market a week and moved out within 3 weeks.
Second place we sold in the fall of October of 2012 and had lots of of offers but some with cruddy conditions. We sold within 3 weeks. Which in my book was an eternity with kids and cats. I really don't know how people can handle the stress of homes being on the market for a long time and having to keep them show-ready. I just don't live like that on a normal day.

Almost 1 year to the day in 2005. Went through two listings with a couple of months off in between.

May 2013. Just under 30 days from list to close.

We had moved into our new house Nov 2012, settled in and furnished it, holidays, winter weather, taking those 6 months to update the former at our convenience. We were selling a much smaller home, good neighborhood, no mortgage, little risk involved. Three offers - any of which I would have been fine with - the first week.

Wow, some of these are Property Brothers fast sales. I had hoped for something like that the last time around, because two comps sold in less than a week, but I am not lucky.

People told me to expect it to take a year.

It is exhausting keeping a house 15 minutes from show ready all the time, but it does become something of a routine. Wish it was one I kept after moving.

My husband's house just sold after about 9 months on the market. It is a high end home that was very dated. Against suggestions, he chose to leave it as is and market it. Finally after 5 months of no offers, he decided he had to put about $80K in and update it, including getting a stager. Once the work was finished, some offers came in, and it's now in Escrow. He should have done the updating PRIOR to marketing it and I think it would have sold quickly. He got 1.625 mil final price, so the update was worth it.

We are 18 months into it with only one offer. How long would you list with an agent before interviewing others?

@martine81684 - Holy cow. 18 months. Something is wrong.

It may be the agent but not usually. Where are you located? It could be your price is too high or your market is very weak - or a combination of the two.

Do you need to sell? Or are you just hoping to sell at a certain price?

Four years. A unique property and a narrow, slow market. On an acreage about 8 miles from a small town and 20 miles to a town big enough for a Walmart. It was a custom-designed home for empty-nesters, oddly laid out, built of natural limestone with high-end wood floors and hand-built custom cabinets.

Too pricy for the area. Finally sold it to a couple from the West Coast. The house is in Missouri.

With my father-in-law's house in Maine he decided last summer that he probably wouldn't return next year. So the family gathered there between Christmas and New Year's to clear it out, clean it up, and to stage it for sale.
I'm not sure how many potential buyers looked at it, but one made an offer and after a little of the usual back-and-forth and counter offers, they reached a price, did the inspections and closed on April 17.
It really could have gone either way. It has a beautiful view of the harbor, a large lot with extensive gardens, but the house has an unusual layout and hasn't been updated in a long time, and most importantly the foundation under the kitchen looked to me like it might be a big concern.
The two real estate agents the family initial talked to were quite far apart with their recommended listing price. One suggested listing at $740K the other thought $550K would be an ambitious starting price. We went with the first agent, listed somewhere in the high $600s and I think settled at $575K.

jn3344 ... we need to sell by the start of next school year. I suspect the house, which would be considered luxury in our market needs some updates and staging in order to compete for that type of buyer.

We have asked for feedback from our agent and all we hear is the house is great. The agent does not usually list in our neoghborhood. It has been frustrating because several homes have come up that we would like and we can't make an offer.

In 2005, our former house sold to the first and only buyer who looked at it, from a one day listing for the purpose of showing it to that client. We were looking at homes one town over to be closer to DH's work, and the agent showing us property wanted to know if she could show our house. I held off until we found what we wanted, then she brought her buyers for a showing and it sold that day. We closed on both houses on the same day exactly a month later.

sept 2014 our home sold before the actual for sale sign went up we got a "coming soon" sign and the next morning a guy stopped and knocked on the front door asking if he could look at our house the actual add had not been written, pictures not yet taken

less than 24 hours after the coming soon sign went up it was sold and yes we were happy

we thought it was priced at least 25 percent too high (35 year old house on a busy street)

hire a professional..........

Last house was listed in June of 2014. It was a unique property and a soft market, so we weren't sure how it was going to go. When we bought the house, it sat on the market for 3 months in a hot market. We had spent a full year preparing the house to sell. It sold in 4 days. Looking back, we probably left about 10K sitting on the table, but it was worth it for a quick sale. Even 4 days was rough, between the cleaning, the kid schedule, and taking the dog places for showings.

Sold our home in the middle of the recession in 2010. Sold it in less than three months and it was the only sale in the second half of 2010 in our neighborhood. Staging, good photos and keeping it clean all helped.

What is the reason for your question?

I didn't have a reason other than a curiosity about people's experiences, and thinking about how long my friends may be homeowners of two residences.

6 weeks in a depressed market. Sold very low to avoid two mortgages and that was very painful. My previous neighborhood saw home values increase 1.6% last year. My current neighborhood saw an increase of 11.2%.

Oh, I was trying to provide a useful answer :)
Sold our house in a few days for substantially more than the realtors we interviewed suggested.
main thing I learned: Most RA want a quick sale, not top dollars.

We spent a couple of hundred dollars on annual flowers, decluttered and cleaned like crazy, painted everything an off white, replaced kitchen vinyl floor, got linen drapes, and installed new neutral carpet over some horrible parquet tile floor that the previous owners had refinished themselves, ripping whole chunks out and stained some weird greenish stain. Oh, and we painted over some fake (faux) brick in the kitchen and a wood panel "feature wall." Buyers loved the new brick and textured wall.

We took about 60 days to sell our condo in 2011 which is not unusual in our market. I think we sold for about 5k over what we wanted and 15k under our original asking price. We had one offer fall through and a fairly steady sprinkle of viewings. I despised keeping the place show ready. And loved having a realtor as I could never have managed all the viewings. There was another lower priced condo in our building (abnormally low price) that came up and sold in days while we were listed. I was happy to see it go. The real downside is our buyer insisted on a close 2 weeks before we went into our new house so we had to move twice. Ugh, worst two weeks ever.

I decluttered, got a storage space, painted, hung more neutral curtains, and sent my realtor some nice shots with the curtains open to show how bright and view-filled the unit was - he's the old school 'draw all the drapes' type. I think the sunshine really helped. The two cats likely did not help but we had nowhere to put them.

Less than 24 hours to the first couple who looked.

We are in a rural area, one large employer in the county. Our neighborhood is desirable, and this has been a pretty Spring. Only 10 days from listing to ratified contract, full price, this week, yay! Part was luck: our local market had been slow since the downturn, so we gained an advantage from pent-up demand. And just recently, four homes in the neighborhood sold, providing a solid basis for pricing our home fairly. Part was standard preparation: we decluttered, cleaned, bought fresh kitchen towels and pretty shower curtains, and did some very minor repairs. Didn't go overboard with updates, other than a new medicine cabinet & light for the master bath, so some flooring and fixtures are obviously 90's vintage. I don't know if our floorplan helped or hurt -- our rooms are generously sized and flow well, but not "open concept" and no first-floor master suite. We had five showings. Two said no right away, two were non-committal. But the right buyer came along, they are truly looking forward to living here. Fingers crossed for a smooth closing.

Ten years, Camden Maine, check the taxes for coastal properties, we reduced the price eight times. Sold in 2013.

Of course it depends on the market.

Hot Market: Westminster, CA. Our very first house got a little too small with two babies so we talked to a realtor. The agent wanted us to list it now! But, we sputtered, "We didn't find another place yet." Answer, best to list this first. So we did. That night we went to dinner. Came home. Sold! WHAT? So we really had to scramble to find a bigger home we could afford. We did, but that was really stressful!

Cool Market: North Tustin, CA DH just sold he and his ex's home and it took a year!

We've sold 5 properties in the past 4 years:
#1: list to close about 60 days (FSBO)
#2: sold to the tenant, took 2 years of beating on him to get him to do it.
#3: list to close 18 months (FSBO 6 months, then realtor)
#4: list to close 18 months (lot, FSBO)
#5: list to close should be ~ 5 weeks, under contract in 1 week (realtor)

I have siblings that have sold 3 houses this year, all were under contract within a week.

The key seems to be: have it show well and price it right.

Babbs50, My father-in-law's house that we sold in April, is in Rockport, next town over from

Camden.

It would be nice to know the area the homes were sold.

Listed our house in 2009, took 4 months to agreed offer, 6 months to close (our idea as we had no where to go at that point). Market crash, housing market falling apart, thought it would take over a year to sell. Buyer wound up being one of the first people to see the house when listed in April. Agreed to our price in August. We held firm on price.

Westchester, NY. Older contemporary, built in 1952. Totally updated. Beautiful property, gardens trees. Clinton, Rockefeller area.

We bought the house for $70,000 in 1971. Sold close to 1M. Luckily the housing market in that area (close to Manhattan) hadn't really dropped yet. Large demand for housing close to the City. If we would have listed a year before we would have gotten considerably more.

Found the whole experience stressful, exhausting yet exciting. Not sure I'd want to do it again.

Jane

It's been under four months with showings at least weekly and one open house, several viewed twice, price has been reduced and we still have not sold. Not even a low offer.

I feel like our life is on hold and I live in a fishbowl, keeping it clean with high hopes and too many disappointments. My realtor, slow on communication. I hired him not because he was a nice guy or my friend, but because I thought he could sell my house.