Robert Darrow, @properties

Are you one of the brave souls who will be putting your home on the market in 2009?

Here’s your guide to navigating the challenging market that the coming year has in store for you.

The new realism

Prices in Chicago have settled between seven and fifteen percent. Get an up-to-the minute Market Analysis on your home with information on closed properties from within the last 60 days. Older data can mislead you into setting too high a listing price.

In Lakeview, one data provider suggests that home values fell approximately 2.5% in September alone.

The amount of price depreciation varies by neighborhood, so seek the advice of an expert in your area.

Superbowl=Spring

There is still snow on the ground, and warm weather is many weeks away. But there’s something important you need to know:

50% of the home sales in Chicago occur during the first 1/3 of the year.

Spring buying season really begins right after the Superbowl. Late January and early February. This leaves February, March and April as the biggest buying (and therefore biggest selling) months of the year.

It is important for you to get a jump on your marketing plan for 2009 in order to hit the market in a timely fashion as soon as the buying season begins.

Many of my home owners miss the Spring selling season by talking to me in “Actual Spring” – March or April. They then take several weeks preparing for the sale. Painting, cleaning, de-cluttering & curb appeal projects all take time.

By missing key deadlines, some owners fall behind, and don’t get their homes on the market until May. By then, the buying season is winding down.

Talk to your Realtor now. Yes, that’s me.

The ideal time to start preparing for the coming marketing season is in December before the Holidays. Or perhaps in the slow week before New Year’s Day.

You want to have your Market Analysis already prepared, and you want your Real Estate Pro to have already given you a TO-DO list for getting ready for market. During January, then, you can get a jump on moving stuffed closets into storage, do a thorough cleaning, start painting, and work on your other projects.

At the same time, we will be writing your ads, building the web pages for your home, scheduling the upcoming open houses, perhaps even getting the Video Tour and Photography taken care of.

Your our listing can then hit the market fully prepared early enough in the season to take advantage of every opportunity to show.

The first few sunny days of late Winter push cabin-fever suffering Chicagoans out on the weekends. You know the kind of day I mean: The temperature finally breaks out of the 30’s. The sun is out and the sky is blue. Snow is melting and you can see a few patches of grass.

Those are the kinds of days where we see hordes of shoppers crowding into open houses. You want them in your open house.

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