If you want to sell your house, now might be the perfect time. The housing market is favoring sellers.

Darlene and Carl Harper are packing up in paper all the items of their lives.

What You Need To Know

  • Demand for houses is high and supple is low, so many houses are going off the market as quickly as they enter

  • Houses are also selling for more money than normal

  • If you’re buying a home realtors suggest coming to them with your pre-approval letter, and with your absolute best offer because there isn’t much time to negotiate right now

“Carl’s always wanted a two-car garage and I’ve always wanted a sunroom. We like this area, we like this community,” said Darlene.

They like the community so much, that they’re only moving to a house less than a mile away that they previously never planned on buying.

“When it went on the market, just on a whim we decided, well, we’ll stop and look at it. And that’s all it took,” said Darlene and Carl.

When it came time to sell their current house, it went just as fast.

“Yeah the first people that came through the house decided to buy it,” said Darlene. “We expected to have it on the market for a while and have time to look for a house.”

“It’s in a great area, and the backyard is amazing. Big backyard and it has a great deck for the summer,” said Jen Silata, a licensed realtor.

Jen Silata has an explanation for why houses are flying off the market as of late.

“With the lack of inventory, it makes it a seller’s market. The interest rates are still low, so there’s a ton of buyers out there. So the competition for the lack of houses is really high. So you’ll see some of the offers on the houses going above the list price,” said Silata.

This isn’t typical for the housing market.

“It’s really atypical; I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been in this business for past 10 years,” said Abby Russell, a sales manager.

Abby’s average sale price in the Southern Tier is up $17,000.

“Usually we have five, six homes we can show a buyer in a given weekend. At the moment, if you’re going out with a buyer, you’re lucky if you can show them one or two,” said Russell.

As far as tips for buyers, Jen says you should show up to your realtor with your pre-approval letter.

“I tell my clients, because of the way the market is right now, you need to be aggressive, you need to go in with your best offer from the start. There’s really no time to negotiate,” said Silata.

“We’re doing a lot of packing right now,” said Darlene.

Realtors say if you’re planning to sell your home, now could be a good time. With demand high and supply low, homes are going for more than sellers expect.