The purpose of this blog is to keep readers informed of issues relevant to the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market. The blog is authored by Kevin Walters, Realtor with Five Star Midwest Realty.

Understanding the current state of the Grand Rapids real estate market is critical to the successful sale of your home. Selling a home often involves trade-offs. The trade-offs revolve around two key issues: 1) How quickly you need to sell your home; and 2) How much money you need to profit from the sale of your home. The local real estate market conditions will help you determine what is realistic to expect for both issues.

If you need to sell your home quickly (faster than the average “days on the market”), you may need to price it below most comparable homes in your area. The trade-off in this scenario would be that you may not make the maximum profit on your sale. Conversely, if you are not pressed for time you may be able to price your home on the higher end of comparable properties in your area. The trade-off in this case is that it may take more days on the market to sell your home.

Real estate markets work on the general financial principle of supply and demand. When there are relatively few homes on the market and there many eager buyers, the market is termed a “seller’s market”. When there relatively few buyers and several months’ worth of inventory (houses for sale), the market is termed a “buyer’s market”. Remember, regardless of whether your local market is a seller’s market or buyer’s market, you will likely get the benefits of each if you sell your home and then decide to buy another in the same market.

To learn about the Grand Rapids real estate market, check our local real estate Multiple Listing Service (GRAR: http://www.grar.com) for the lastest statistics for comparable homes. If you are unfamiliar with how this is done, feel free to contact me (Kevin@grapidshomes.com) and I'll do all I can to help. Ideally it would be useful to know the average days on the market, average sales price and number of other homes on the market that are comparable to yours.

For more information on our local market, stay tuned for the next post regarding "Comparative Market Analysis".