Days on real estate market, what the DOM means.
Property listings swim in a local Maine real estate market. Plain and simple. From day one when a real estate property listing hits the market, time in money.
Brand new listings exposure starts as soon as the contract inks dries, the step in lawn sign gets planted for real estate show and tell.
As property listings show up in living color on syndication from the MLS feed to hundreds of portals nationwide. Every minute counts from new listing launch to the the target sit down real estate closing.
Why?
Because how the property is priced, marketed, introduced to the real estate buyer is critical.
Lots of other horses in the house race or whatever type of property listing up for sale.
Today it’s like cable or SAT television… 300 channels and nothing to watch during when you binge.
Or how do you get them to even pick your real estate marketing brand channel and wander in? How did we get by with rabbit ears or roof top antennae with a rotor to select from only three off air channels years ago?
So back to days on the market, why that number is so critical in real estate.
The days on market, DOM tells a tale. When the number increases, the reason the property listing lingers and does not get escorted to a real estate closing are many. One of the top reasons is the listing price is too high.
If the property price in today’s market is way way more than other pretty much just like it, the DOM increases.
If there is a healthy inventory selection of lower priced places just like your listing to pick from, your buyer will.
Or the real estate listing marketing is lack luster.
Your buyer’s eyes cloud over and they think more about a nap, something for a snack
and less about your property listing.
It all blends into the sea of sameness.
Does not instantly stand out online or attract them in from the curb.
If your narrative, the photos, the video (what, no video?) are thrown online too hurriedly. The reaction is like winking at a lady in the dark. Results are poor.
If the real estate presentation is ho mum, it blends in with all the carbon copy others.
Flit happens in the swipe, slide, click stop in, back out search pattern.
Getting the attention of the property buyer is key. Keeping it is a skill.
Think real estate customer.
They are busy, want quick and easy to digest information and help in filtering out to find the best property listing for their budget and wish list.
If a new listing comes along, they want to know about it instantly. Before the property listing goes under contract, sale pending.
Election year worries could delay the sale and cause a higher DOM for some of the real estate audience.
Just over my price point with higher bank mortgage interest rates. I would buy if I could but if the listing is just over my bank lender pre-approval amount, I can’t.
The buyer waits, waits some more.
The DOM on your over priced property listing racks up higher if local house financed buyers can not get it to appraise high enough.
Or their debt ratios combined with higher interest rates put it out of reach to consider buying.
Marketing beyond the local bank financed real estate market zip code is where videos shine brightest.
Oh sure, local home buyers, other types of real estate purchasers enjoy the ease of scroll, swipe, click and sit back listen and watch using video.
But your out of town, state, country real estate buyers need video like oxygen, water, food, love. They also want community information, not just real estate listings.
The real estate buyer can not physically tour the property, the community either.
So video fills that need to do the next best thing instead of nothing.
Videos remove the travel delay and expense for far away real estate buyers. A slide show is not a video and your buyer quickly mutters hey, wait a minute.
Suddenly, the buyer does not have to come see it if the video is thorough and covers all the bases.
The over 11 minute real estate video perform bests for these online buyers. The agent can follow up with a private face time or Whatsapp video live stream and docusign the purchase and sale agreement easy peasy.
The audience for a property increases ten fold using real full motion with natural sound real estate video.
Large audience impacts the DOM because it puts more eyes and ears on the listing.
The real estate listing when it hits the market has a honey morning period. New, different, unknown, untested. The days on market number as it increases starts making the buyer and the owner of the real estate listing wonder why.
What is wrong?
Why is this real estate listing being passed by and not scooped up by a buyer?
Supply and demand also contribute to the days on market statistic. Not adjusting the price lower to reflect a change in the real estate market listing sales is ignoring what is happening around the property.
Condition of property matters even if the price is right. The extra money may be lacking to shingle a roof, paint the exterior or fix a plumbing leak.
Even the most attractively priced and well presented, staged correctly properly can hang around the real estate market.
If the list of what ails it is too much for a bank appraiser or mortgage underwriter. Who wants it all up to snuff before the clear to close memo goes out.
So out priced buyers cause DOM. So does a property priced right but needing some big ticket repair items the average bank financed buyer can not conquer before closing. Lack of marketing, no video can limit the size of the market and keep it pretty much a local one. High interest rates and lack of affordable inventory can increase the DOM.
What else?
Currently the latest National Association of REALTORS court case ruling about commission splits with buyer agents.
Is that causing a hesitancy and adding indirectly to the DOM?
Your buyer for a home could be a little distracted too. If school goes in two weeks from now, then last minute summer vacations take the spotlight. Time to house hunt is parked while the family vacations.
Or national disasters like fires, harsh weather, power outages all impact the “honey, let’s search for a new house listing”.
Lack of inventory usually speeds up the market and cures the pickiest of house buyers who suck it up. Making the most of what is for sale to get a hand up and out of the rent rut.
Holidays are hectic and busy but not always distracting the house hunter. If your online presentation is rich and robust and again if video is used one after another new property listing, families do search online.
When you remove the got to set up a showing and physical go to the property and the community that may be brand new to the buyer, good things happen using video. The home buyer sees more than one touring with video and makes better informed buying decisions too. All of this helps to lower the DOM.
The days on the market DOM, what else can help the number stay low?
If a seller, renter is an obstacle delaying getting in to see and tour to consider the place. That can add to the time on the market and lead to lost sale opportunities. This is another benefit for previously recorded, edited, uploaded real estate video.
There is always a showing happening right now if you are available to sneak a peek if there is a real estate video.
Distractions, Olympics, politics, weather, personal problems and events like weddings, funerals, divorces, legal proceedings or medical procedures.
They are slow down and help the DOM increase.
Like a high mileage car on the odometer, the property listing wearing a high DOM is mentally slid over into the “dead horse” category. The why so many days on market is quickly assumed something is wrong, why is it still on the market?
A person forty, fifty, sixty and never married or in a relationship raises an eyebrow in wondering why in the dating game.
High DOM house listings are like spinsters. Real estate house hunting is like dating, looking for a seller buyer relationship to partner up and pass the keys, slide the check please.
But if the Maine real estate buyer has wanted to purchase but can not find what they are looking for, the motivation to buy can increase when the right property listing shows up.
Pressure to buy is greatest when a family needs shelter and the parents can not find alternate housing.
Not wanting to move twice can make a vacant property look even more attractive to this buyer. Getting in before winter causes the same urgency and helps the DOM on a house that is available without delay to possess.
Lately the World is overbooked, under staffed and it’s hurry up and wait.
If repairs to a house to please bank mortgage underwriters are needed and tradesmen to do the fix are too busy or too few or sky high in their job order estimate number.
That delay fixing the list of house repairs can add to the DOM. The real estate might be under contract but still sitting adding to the days on market. From when listed and still waiting for a sit down closing clear to close memo.
Like a major operation in the OR, the longer the DOM monitors beep beep beep and surgeons ask for retractor, suture, suction.
It’s dangerous and the odds decrease that this real estate sale is going to make it to a closing.
Absorption rate, how big a supply of homes are available? If nothing new was listed, when only 60 days of supply is available to consider buying, that helps lower the DOM than in a market where there is a 120 day stockpile. Just how the market works and what influences to stimulate or make it sluggish.
With land sales, owner financing is popular because the seller does not have to “replace” like a house.
No mortgage on the land so attractive terms can make it an annuity for the owner and reduce the DOM at the same time.
Owner financed sales can happen within days not six to eight weeks like a bank mortgage loan process. I have had a lot of house sales where the owner says give me 50% down, don’t beat me up on the price and here is a note for a year or two.
The buyer’s home proceeds will be used to pay off that note. The more creative and helpful the seller and buyer can be, the shorter the DOM figure on the local Maine real estate market.
This real estate blog post is trying to drill down into the causes of DOM listing bloat.
Lastly, when a buyer sees how long the property has been for sale, on the market and it is a high number. That buyer begins to see “ten foot pole marks” and forms a conclusion something is wrong.
Not always sure what is amiss but thinks it must be property defects. Something they can not see but sense better avoid this one. Next.
Often, the property was listed, quickly went under contract and is after considerable delay cast back on the active listings market inventory.
The buyer could not get the money, was served divorce papers, repairs needed or building report showed problems too big to fix, etc.
If the approved for a loan buyer suddenly is not after a hard check on the financials, credit, debt ratios, job status, etc….. (loud buzzer sound).
I always tell a buyer don’t change jobs, make no major purchases, don’t get divorced and keep spending easy does it.
Otherwise, the buyer may have been approved to buy but surprise, no longer qualified later on after the purchase and sale agreement ink dries.
Factors in the local real estate market all add to the time it takes from initial listing to the final closing.
Smelly, dirty, cluttered house listings don’t ooh la la.
Appraisal order not filled or waiting a long time on a local contractor repair. The DOM adds up for many reasons.
Many house contract sales agreements are signed and accepted when not enough vetting is done. Too little information about the buyer for a property known, their financing, ability to fund or fix house mortgage underwriting deficiencies themselves adds to delay.
Nothing hurts the properties desirability more than all the buyers seeing a place go under contract and days or weeks or months later it hops back on the MLS carousel of current listings.
What happens behind the scenes to cause DOM or a quick clear to close memo.
Hoping this Maine real estate blog post on days on market, DOM is helpful to further explain the process of list, twist, sell (repeat).
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730
