Does location still matter most? Should you remodel your home to suit your tastes or for resale value? Are starter homes still a thing? We all have plenty of questions about the ever-changing world of real estate. In our Ask an Agent series, we’re partnering with experts at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to answer your biggest questions about finding, buying, and selling a home.

Whether you’re planning to sell your home or are simply curious about today’s housing market, it helps to know what to expect. Here, a real estate agent with 25 years of experience shares how long homes typically take to sell and the biggest factors that influence the timeline.

These Are the Most Important Questions to Ask Your Real Estate Agent During a Home Tour

Kristen Wehner Jacobsen

For this installment of Ask an Agent, we spoke with Kristen Wehner Jacobsen, an associate broker, realtor, and CDRE with Better Homes and Gardens | The Good Life Group in Omaha, to discover how long it actually takes to sell a home in today’s market.

Kristen Wehner Jacobsen is an associate broker, realtor, and CDRE with Better Homes and Gardens | The Good Life Group in Omaha. She’s been a full-time realtor for 25 years.

How Long Does It Really Take to Sell a Home in Today’s Market?

How long it takes to sell a home in today’s market depends on its age, style, location, condition, and price. In Omaha, the average time spent on the market right now is 36 days. I’ve been an agent for 25 years, so I feel like I’ve seen a lot of different markets—I’ve gone through the recession, COVID, and what we’re going through today. Right now, the market is actually still extremely healthy, and Omaha’s in a seller’s market. While some people claim the market is poor and interest rates are high, the fact is we have very low inventory, and interest rates have been about 6% to 6.5% for over a year. So, if a home is priced right and in great condition, it’s likely to sell with multiple offers.

For example, Omaha’s first-time homebuyer market sits around just under $400,000. I recently sold a first-time homebuyer’s home in a good location (including a good school district), and it had seven offers in two weeks and even sold over the list price. On the flip side, there is an oversupply of homes priced above $500,000 (particularly new construction), creating more of a buyer’s market and often allowing them to sit for a while.

In the Omaha market, and probably what I’ve noticed all throughout my career, most attention and showings are in the first three weeks. If your home isn’t sold within that timeframe, there’s an issue with pricing. If it sits on the market longer than the average (in this case, 36 days), you’ll likely need to reduce the house’s price to attract a buyer. Since there is low inventory, buyers are likely well informed about what they are looking for in a home, meaning that if the house isn’t in a good location or isn’t in great condition, it will probably sit on the market until the price is lowered enough to sell it.