From the moment you decide to sell your home until you hand over the keys at closing, it's impossible to know exactly how long the selling process will take. Not only do you have to navigate certain steps, but some things can go wrong, adding expensive, inconvenient delays to the closing process.
The same is true for your buyers and their team. They can either move the transaction along, or hinder it.
So how do you plan for a successful outcome? By doing the most you can that’s within your control.
Preparing to sell
Homes are unique for their designs, sizes, locations, and condition, all of which can impact the price you’ll receive for your home. You can’t control the location, and changing the size or design style is likely too expensive to carry out before putting your home on the market. But what you can do is work on your home’s presentation.
At the least, you should:
1. Examine your finances: A quick look at your loan balance can tell you how much equity you have in your home. Subtract estimated closing costs and seller expenses to better understand your potential proceeds. Don’t incur new debt, unless it’s to borrow for home improvements that add significant buyer appeal. Pay off the home improvement loan at closing.
2. Set priorities: Why does your current home no longer meet your needs, and what do you hope to accomplish by selling? Do you need more or less room? Do you want to relocate closer to family? Will you be able to meet your household needs for jobs, schools, medical help, transportation, shopping and services such as child or elder care?
3. Pick your team: As your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network agent, we can help you with your timelines, including pointing out areas to improve for curb appeal. You may also need to hire a contractor to make improvements and repairs and a home staging professional to help showcase your home's best features. We can also provide a comparative market analysis to help establish an effective list price.
4. Declutter: Empty closets, built-ins, and tabletops of clutter and unused or unwanted items.
5. Deep clean: You can take this on yourself, but for speed and efficiency, it's worth hiring a professional cleaning service that can clean the entire house in a day.
While these steps take time, thoughtful preparation can help your home make a strong first impression and support a smoother selling process.
Track your listing
The clock starts ticking as soon as your listing agent inputs your home into the local multiple listing service (MLS), and data gathering begins. MLSs collect numerous metrics from days on market (DOM) to percentages of price reductions and much more, which are updated daily.
These are the reasons DOM is important:
• DOM measures the time between when a home is listed and when it goes under contract or is removed from the market.
• DOM can help reveal market trends, indicating whether buyer demand is strengthening or softening.
• Generally, a shorter DOM suggests strong buyer demand, while a longer DOM may indicate that buyers are proceeding more cautiously.
• Comparing DOM trends over time can help identify whether conditions are favoring buyers or sellers.
• DOM can vary significantly by market, price point and location. Luxury, rural or highly specialized properties often remain on the market longer than homes in densely populated areas.
• The first few weeks after listing are often critical. Limited showing activity or a lack of offers during this period may signal that pricing, condition or marketing adjustments are needed.
The significance of days on market varies by location. We can help you determine whether local conditions currently favor buyers, sellers or a balanced market.
Local vs national dynamics
Since 2020, the housing market has experienced significant price appreciation in many areas, with estimates that the “typical homeowner accumulated about $128,000 in housing wealth over the past six years alone.”
Yet despite rising prices, many prospective homebuyers have remained active in the market. In June 2026, median home prices reached record highs at $440,600. Even though sales were down for the month, they were 1.8% higher year-over-year.
Local economic development, population growth, employment trends and infrastructure investments can all influence housing demand and affect how quickly homes sell in a given market.
While existing home sales represent closed sales, pending transactions represent signed contracts only. June was also a notable month for pending transactions, which declined 0.3% year over year and 5.4% from May for various reasons:
1. Home prices hit all-time highs.
2. Mortgage interest rates escalated to the highest percentage in a year.
3. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty continued to impact buyer activity.
Other selling timeline wild cards
Your homebuyers can either pay cash or get a mortgage, the latter of which comes with several hurdles that must be cleared before closing.
· The buyers have to qualify for the mortgage loan.
· Certain kinds of loans require a home inspection, but most buyers will take this protective step anyway.
· The buyer typically has about one week to 10 days to have your home’s structures, systems, appliances, and fixtures professionally inspected.
· The home inspection can reveal unexpected issues that need to be fixed before the transaction can move forward.
· The buyer’s lender will require an appraisal which compares your home to others that have recently sold.
What can go wrong?
• If significant issues are found during the inspection, the contract may be renegotiated or, in some cases, canceled by the buyers.
• If you agree to fix the issues, you may find material and labor costs have escalated. You may also have trouble finding the right handyperson or contractor to do the work.
• The home appraisal may not meet the contract price. The buyer would have to come up with more money, or you may have to lower the price.
· Buyers may not realize how much their credit profile and employment history can affect loan approval.
· Lenders run the homebuyers’ full credit reports just before closing. If buyers take on additional debt before closing by purchasing furniture, vehicles or other large-ticket items, their debt-to-income ratio may change and jeopardize loan approval.
Meeting buyers’ expectations
You may not be able to control what happens abroad, but there’s a lot you can do to prevent the sale of your home from taking too long or collapsing.
Buyers may begin their search focused on features such as bedrooms and square footage, but when it comes time to decide, three factors often carry the most weight: price, condition and location. Therefore:
• Price it right from the get-go. Don’t “test” the market with a high price that isn’t supported by comparable data.
• Provide a move-in ready experience. If you haven’t done the touch-ups, repairs and maintenance needed, homebuyers either won’t make an offer, or their offer will be low.
• Location matters, but buyers will compromise if the price and condition are right.
While no seller can control every factor that affects a transaction, preparing your home thoughtfully and pricing it strategically can improve your chances of attracting qualified buyers and achieving a successful sale in a timely manner.
