Checking the market before selling a house, apartment, or even an office is crucial. It’s the best way to make sure you can both sell quickly and at a price you’re happy to get. 

Without this bit of legwork before you put a ‘for sale’ sign outside your property, you’ll be heading into the market totally blind with no idea what to expect. 

And that’s not a great position to put yourself in as a seller, whether you’re selling an investment property or something you bought to use or live in yourself. 

So let’s make it easier to check the market. Here are a few top tips for researching housing market potential in your area.

Take a Close Look at Local Listings

Combing through local listings isn’t just a bit of fun. It’s also crucial market research. 

Make sure you spend plenty of time going through current listings AND recent sales, and keep an eye for at least a month or two before you take the plunge yourself. 

Why? You’re looking for 3 factors here: 

1. What size homes (including amount of rooms) are selling quickly?
2. What (if any) recent home improvements or conversions are selling well?
3. What’s the average asking price in your area?

These should give you plenty of information for how well your property would do if you put it up for sale right now.

Lay Out All Buyer Options

Depending on the area, there are more options for sellers to consider than just popping the house on the market and hoping to attract a buyer at some point. 

Indeed, if your property is located in a high-demand location, or there’s been a lot of recent property development in the local urban area, you could have the option to sell to the same developers or a bigger investment company. 

You may also be able to sell without a realtor, which you can do with a company like iBuyLehigh. This can halve the time you spend looking for a buyer, and may even present a better return without any commission or agency fees to pay on top.

Approach Your Property Like a Buyer

You can only do this once you know what buyers in your area actually want. That’s why this is the last step in the process; you need to do a bit of research into local listings and recent sales first.

Once you’ve got that information, however, you can step inside your front door and focus on what prospective buyers will see. Separate the property from yourself for a moment here, and only think about the buyer needs you’ve seen time and time again in the local market. 

For example, if houses with ample storage have been popular for the past 6 months, where would a buyer see that same potential in your property? And similarly, how far into the house would they have to go before it’s highlighted for them?

Want to sell a property? Get a feel for your chances first.