The data scientists at Redfin have released some numbers that indicate listing a home on a Thursday could have an impact on the closing price — Thursday listings closed at an average of $2,352 more than Sunday listings, Redfin said.
The company also noted that open houses don’t make a significant different on final sales price or length of time to sale, and are therefore perhaps not worth a seller’s time.
The data for open houses and when to list came from 12 million condo, townhome and single-family sales in active Redfin markets since January 2010. “For some metrics, such as when to list, we reported 2015 numbers while affirming a trend for each year back to 2010,” explained Redfin in a statement.
“In determining how open houses impact sales and prices, we pulled all home sales for 2015. Then we partitioned the data on whether the open house was within the first week after a home is listed, after the first week, or no open house at all.”
The company also concluded that professional photos are worth the cost. “Sellers who used a high-quality camera and lenses for their listing photos got an average of $3,400 more for their properties,” reported Redfin.
And although real estate agents already know the importance of pricing a home correctly, Redfin’s reminder to consumers uses data to make its point.
“Testing the waters in hopes of getting a higher price is self-defeating,” states the company. “That’s because homes get five time more online views the day they hit the market than they do a week later. If buyers dismiss your home as overpriced early on, they might never come back.
“Even if you drop the price later, you’ve missed a critical window for getting buyers’ attention. New listings get almost twice as many views on Redfin.com the day they hit the market than the day a price is lowered.”