Beating The Spring Rush: Real Advice From Four Markets

Send us Fan Mail

Thinking of waiting for spring to sell? We unpack why that strategy can backfire, drawing on fresh insights from agents in Connecticut, North Carolina, California, and Utah. Together we map how inventory, buyer motivation, and local price trends—not the calendar—shape your real outcome, whether you’re trying to capture top dollar or avoid a long, stressful listing.

We start with Connecticut, where scarce inventory keeps buyers active and competitive even in colder months. Then we contrast that with Asheville and Charlotte, where year-over-year declines and a growing pool of listings suggest that each month of waiting can reduce your net. We run the simple math of a 6 percent annual drop, show how price reductions reset comps, and explain why pricing to last year’s peak is a costly trap. From Carmel’s high-demand reality to Cache County’s expected spring relist surge, we dig into how seemingly different markets share one truth: serious buyers don’t care about leaves on trees; they care about finding the right home at the right price.

You’ll hear practical, no-fluff advice on when to list now, how to prepare if you must wait, and what to prioritize: pre-list prep, accurate pricing, fast feedback loops, and a plan for swift adjustments. We also outline options for convenience and certainty, including a full market value cash offer for sellers who want to skip showings and timelines. By the end, you’ll have a clear, local-aware framework to decide whether to beat the spring rush or engineer a smarter launch.

If this helped you think differently about timing your sale, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s debating a spring listing, and leave a quick review to tell us what market you’re in and what you’re seeing.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_04 (00:17):
Hey everyone, it's Romina Patton here on the Real
Estate News Radio, and we've gotsome amazing agents around the
table today.
And we're going to talk about isit worth waiting until the
spring?
Yes, we're hearing it every day.
We're waiting until the leavesare on the trees.
If you're in Florida, you'vestill got leaves on the trees.
But oh gosh, you know, themarket.
The market's hopping now.
The market isn't hopping becauseit's South Florida.

(00:39):
What do we do?
Do we wait?
Let's throw it over to Melissain Connecticut.
How are you doing, Melissa?

SPEAKER_03 (00:44):
I'm doing great, bro.
Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_04 (00:47):
Do you hear the same thing?
Are you hearing the same thingover there in Tallinn,
Connecticut?

SPEAKER_03 (00:51):
So yeah, my name is Melissa Rolland.
I'm from Tallinn, Connecticut,and it is hopping right now.
There's not a ton of stuff uhhouses on the inventory.
Inventory is very, very low.
So buyers are still out thereand shopping and putting down
offers.
So it's with the with the lackof inventory, there's definitely
still deals happening.
So get in now.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11):
So do you feel like if you were a home seller?
Because many of them, you're inTallinn, Connecticut, I'm in
Asheville, North Carolina.
You you've got leaves off thetrees right now.
We have deciduous trees.
A lot of my home sellers aresaying, oh, I'll just give it
until March or April.
My market, we're gonna have aflood of more homes on the
market.
I don't have that many rightnow, but we do have two or three

(01:34):
times what's been on the market,you know, um uh since a year
ago.
We have more homes on themarket, so there's already more
competition.
I feel like in March or April,we're gonna see a lot more homes
come on the market.
So get it on now.
The buyers don't care whetherthe leaves are on the trees,
they want to buy a house.

SPEAKER_03 (01:52):
Absolutely true.
And also what we find is thatthe buyers that are out there
now are a more serious buyer.
They're not looking loose, justkind of ticking t kicking tires
to see what's out there.
They're ready to to get into anew house.

SPEAKER_04 (02:04):
Yes, so get in before the rush.
Stephen Pelletti over in Carmelin Northern California.
What's the weather like theretoday, Stephen?

SPEAKER_00 (02:12):
It's beautiful and sunny.
And uh I I I wish I was uhheading out to the golf course.

SPEAKER_04 (02:17):
And what would you say to all your sellers?
Are you hearing the same thing?
We're gonna wait until thespring, or do you have a
seasonal market?
Do you have less homes on themarket now?
What are they saying?

SPEAKER_00 (02:27):
Well, we do have uh uh a lack of inventory, which uh
seems to make a difference interms of um market activity.
But California, particularly inthis particular area, is a high
demand area, and we see uh lessof a decline in value than in
other parts of the country.
But I would also say that westill are in a declining market.

(02:50):
So to wait, I think, is to is tosee a decrease in value.
So if you're thinking aboutselling, now is the time to put
it on the market.

SPEAKER_04 (02:58):
And to put that in perspective, Stevens market is
looking to increase by about 2%in the next 12 months.
Tell me, guys, if I'm gettingall these figures right.
Melissa Rolland in Connecticutis number one in the country in
the forecast, and that's goingup about 7% in the next year.
What wahwa here's Roe inAsheville, North Carolina.

(03:19):
Much of our market in westernNorth Carolina is going down
about the same as Melissa isgoing up.
So we're down six or sevenpercent.
And then I want to throw it overto Scott, who's not so far away
in Charlotte, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
Hey everybody, Scott Carpenter, Charlotte, North
Carolina here.
Um, yeah, I'm on uh I'm I'm uhkind of in rose spectrum uh on
the decline.
Uh we're down a good solid uhfive to eight percent all over
my area here in MecklenburgCounty, Union County.

SPEAKER_04 (03:49):
So should they wait, Scott?
Should they wait until what'sgonna happen in April?
You've been in real estate along time.

SPEAKER_01 (03:55):
Yeah.
So what's already happened isyear over year we have twice as
many listings as as you know nowthan we did last year at this
time.
And if you're gonna wait forspring, you're just gonna have
even more competition.
So um I right now you haveplenty of competition.
So I would uh try to beat beatbeat that competition, get on
the market now, because as youknow, if the if the market's

(04:18):
gonna keep declining, uh it'sjust gonna cost you money every
month at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 (04:22):
Yeah, you've got a forecast like me of between six
and eight percent, depending onwhich part of Charlotte.
So if if you look at that for asecond, even if at six percent
decline, that's half a percentevery month.
It doesn't sound like a lot, butif you're you're in a$500,000 or
a million dollar house, eachmonth it's starting to track up.
And I think the real problem isthat sellers are like, oh, we'll

(04:44):
put it on at$800,000 becausethat's what it was worth last
year.
Whereas other people whoactually need to move, you may
not be desperate, you may notneed to move.
It's okay, we get it.
But about a third to a half ofthe people who are listing
actually need to sell the house.
So they're gonna reduce theirprice, reduce their price until
it sells, which is actually whatcauses all of these price drops,

(05:06):
because you've got so much uhsupply out there and not enough
demand, that's what causes theprice drops.
So eventually you're eithergonna have to delist, and we've
got a record number of peopleacross the country delisting as
well, taking the listing off themarket, and waiting for a year.
Guys, if you're in a decliningmarket, it's gonna be two or
three years until Scott and I godown.
Deborah, I want to go over toDeborah Morgan, who's in Utah.

(05:30):
How are you doing, Deborah?
I'm great.
Thank you for having me on theshow.

SPEAKER_02 (05:33):
And what are you doing over there in in over in
Utah?
What I'm seeing in my area inCash County, Utah, which is the
home of Utah State University.
Um, we're seeing a lot of peoplethat, like you said, delisted
their homes in November andDecember.
And when I'm speaking to thesepeople, they're all telling me

(05:57):
the same thing.
They're waiting until spring.
So if you have a home for sale,now's the time to list it
because you're gonna have a lotmore competition come spring.
And if you're a buyer, again,now's the time to look to buy a
home because you're gonna havemore competition in spring.
There will be more homes on themarket, but you'll also have

(06:18):
more buyers buyers out therelooking.
So why does everybody wait?

SPEAKER_04 (06:23):
If you're serious, get out there.
It's not like, oh, let's just goand look at the that's what you
were talking about with tiekickers before.
Let's just go and look at somehouses at the weekend.
You want the serious buyers.
Selling a house is not for thefaint of heart.
And of course, gotta say thankyou so much, everybody.
We of course have our fullmarket value cash offer, which,

(06:44):
if you don't want to go throughall these showings, you don't
want to any of this hassle ordeal with all of us agents out
there, we can do a full marketvalue offer for you.
Just get in touch, give us acall 247-828-333-4483,
828-333-4483.
If you prefer a website to goto, you can go to realestate

(07:05):
newsradio.com, realestatenewsradio.com, anytime, any day.
You can see all the episodes onthere and where to get in touch
with any of us.
We've got a big team all aroundthe country that can help you
with this.
And we're standing by.
We'll see you on the radio nextweek.