The Raleigh Market Has Shifted - What That Means If You're Planning to Sell

By Kelly DeBrosse | eXp Realty | 23+ years serving Raleigh, Wake & surrounding counties

The Raleigh market has shifted. I first started noticing the indications around the middle of February, and since then the changes have become much more apparent. What buyers and sellers are seeing on the ground today looks very different than it did just a few months ago.

Homes are taking longer to sell. Buyers are writing offers that often seem too low to even begin negotiating, yet many of those same buyers are ultimately coming up to a reasonable purchase price. Builders have increased their incentives again, offering closing cost assistance, mortgage rate buy-downs, and more competitive pricing. We're also seeing price reductions on both new construction and resale homes. None of this surprises those of us who have been through previous market shifts. We've seen these cycles before.

For homeowners thinking about selling, this changes what the process should look like. During the past several years, our market has been such a strong seller's market that many homeowners didn't have to do much to prepare their homes before listing. Fresh paint, new flooring, pressure washing, landscaping, updated light fixtures, and small repairs often became optional instead of necessary. Homes were still selling quickly, sellers were receiving excellent prices, and repair negotiations were minimal.

Covid created a market unlike anything I've experienced in my career, and I would be surprised if we ever see another one quite like it. Buyers had very few homes to choose from and often purchased after seeing only a handful of properties. They accepted repairs that would have been deal breakers in previous markets, and many put down thousands upon thousands of dollars in non-refundable due diligence just to compete in multiple-offer situations.

From the seller's perspective, almost every home found a buyer. It didn't seem to matter if the home backed to a busy road, sat under power lines, had a steep backyard, or lacked privacy. Sellers were receiving prices many never expected, and when inspections were completed, repairs were often minimal or negotiated with relatively small cash concessions instead.

That isn't the market we've shifted into, though.

We're returning to a market where buyers have choices again. They can compare one home against another and decide which one offers the best overall value. They're also comparing resale homes to brand-new construction, where builders are willing to contribute toward closing costs, buy down interest rates, and offer incentives that make new homes extremely competitive.

That means preparation matters significantly again.

One of the best uses of a marketing budget, in my opinion, is staging. It's something I've believed in for years because I've seen the difference it can make in how buyers respond to a home. If you were selling your car, you wouldn't leave it dirty, cluttered, or smelling like last week's drive-through. You would clean it, deodorize it, touch up what you could, and present it in the best possible condition because you want it to stand out from every other car a buyer is considering. Preparing a home for sale isn't vastly different. The goal is to make your home the very best choice among other homes offering similar features and price points.

That's why preparing a home for today's market has become such an important part of my job. We don't simply decide on a price and schedule photography. We walk through the home together, determine what improvements will have the greatest impact, obtain quotes, make decisions about where money should and shouldn't be spent, complete the work, then have it cleaned, staged, photographed, measured, and prepare the marketing before the home ever goes live.

There isn't much room for missteps in today's market. The planning that happens before a home is listed can have a tremendous impact on the final result. As the market continues to shift, that preparation process is becoming more detailed, more strategic, and more important than it has been in several years. When you might only get one buyer through the home in a week's time, you cannot afford to miss out on even one ready, willing, and able buyer.

The purpose of doing these preparations is to eliminate the objections buyers would otherwise be talking about as they walk through the home. Instead of discussing how much it's going to cost to get the home into the condition they want, we've already addressed those issues in the most economical way possible. Moving is already stressful and expensive. Our job is to make the home feel as move-in ready as possible, eliminating the perception of work so buyers can focus on how the home fits their lives instead of what they'll have to do after closing.

When we're deciding which improvements to make, every dollar invested should have the potential to return several times that amount in overall value. If we invest $10,000 into a home, it's because we can reasonably estimate we'll net an additional three times that investment. That is the key—not to just spend money, but to spend it in the best way possible to achieve the highest and best overall return on the investment.

The way homes are viewed by buyers has changed. The way transactions are negotiated has changed. The way deals are held together from contract to closing has changed. Sellers who recognize that early and prepare accordingly will put themselves in the strongest possible position for success.

One last thought. If you're simply "testing the market" because you've heard homes are still selling, this probably isn't the market for that strategy. Today's sellers tend to be people who truly need or genuinely want to make a move. The difference is that today's market requires realistic expectations. While your current home may not bring what it might have during the Covid market, you'll likely benefit from the same market conditions when you purchase your next home. Real estate has always been a balancing act, and today's market is no different.

That's why understanding today's market is so important. The goal isn't to chase yesterday's prices. It's to make the best decision based on today's market and position your home to achieve the strongest result possible.