Daily Real Estate News  |  January 11, 2008

How to Get a Quick Sale in a Slower Market
An analysis of the real estate market in the Baltimore area shows that even in a slow market some houses sell quickly — for the same reasons they do in a booming market.

In November, when the average time on the market was 105 days, 13 percent of the 1,892 homes that sold in Baltimore and five surrounding counties had contracts in two weeks or less, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

Those 251 homes went from listing to selling in an average of seven days. They were typically older, three-bedroom, two-bath houses that sold at an average of $304,355 — about $4,000 under the overall average sale price.

An analysis shows that fast sellers in a slow market have three common denominators:

• They're priced better than comparable listings.
• They show like model homes.
• They have a full force of marketing, including enticing Internet photos, behind them.