HOW Many Homes?

How many homes does the typical buyer look at before making a selection?

According to the 2011 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the average buyer looked at 12 homes over a course of 12 weeks. 

So what does that mean to a seller?  On average, one in 12 people who look at your home should make an offer.  If not, something’s wrong… it’s either “product” or “price”, meaning it’s something about your house that’s turning off buyers.  You need to identify it and correct it, or you need to drop your price to overcome that objection.

What does this mean to a buyer?  No, it does not mean you have to look at 12 homes before you can buy, and it does not mean you can’t buy in less than 3 months.   In fact, I have sold several people the very first home they saw….although most still need to look at a few more just to be sure before they make their decision.

MY typical buyer looks at about 6 homes before they choose one, but that is from when they “hire” me to help them start looking.  Many times, people have been shopping open houses before they began working with me – or any agent.  So perhaps the real average is about 12, but it’s about 6 from the time they get serious, more or less. Sometimes they look at all of them on one day.  Sometimes they look at one a week or every few weeks. It depends on their urgency.

Relocation buyers may have to see more homes if they are unfamiliar with the area because they are learning about the neighborhoods and submarkets  as much as they are checking out the homes.  Local buyers typically are able to narrow down their selections very well with online home shopping, coupled with their knowledge of the areas (they also have the advantage of doing “drive bys” before they actually schedule a time to look at the home).