Realty Executives Midwest
When you hire a real estate professional who is a REALTOR® to help sell your home, you’re gaining a partner with the skills, connections, knowledge and expertise to help you through many decisions aimed at showcasing your home to its fullest potential. Your agent will create a marketing plan; talk with you about listing your home in the multiple listing service (MLS), a marketplace that helps you reach the largest possible pool of serious buyers and maximize the price for your home; and guide you through other steps in preparing your home for sale.
Your agent is also an invaluable ally in helping you ensure privacy and security by managing access during the marketing and transaction process. Why is that important? For one thing, photography and video are ubiquitous today. Everyone who enters your home during the sales process likely has a camera.
Photos of your home are an important part of the sales process, enabling real estate agents and brokers to market your home. Your agent or a professional photographer will be capturing images and video to highlight your home’s best features. With your permission, the listing (with imagery) will be shared on the MLS, which provides it to brokerage websites and portals where buyers search. Others may visit your home with a camera in hand, too. A certified or licensed appraiser may review your home for purposes of providing an appraisal, or a property data collector may gather information to provide to the buyer’s lender. The buyers may choose to have a home inspection. And repair professionals may need access to your home. If you purchase another home and later refinance the mortgage, your lender may send an appraiser or property data collector to that home. In all these scenarios, photos, video or scans may be taken.
Real estate professionals and lenders should have safeguards in place to ensure the security of sensitive data, but there are important steps you can take to make sure you don’t inadvertently share personal information with bad actors in the event of a breach:
Put away anything that reveals personal details, including family photos, visible calendars, mail, computer logins, wi-fi passwords and documents with sensitive information. Even diplomas, awards or books can give away more than you realize.
Lock up jewelry, important and sensitive documents, firearms and prescription medications. A small lockbox or safe is a worthwhile investment to provide peace of mind with visitors coming and going.
Although an agent generally accompanies buyers when they’re in the home, it’s possible for buyers to wander and take photos or videos. Ask your agent to include a “No Photography” note in the MLS, and place polite signage in your home to help deter this.
Electronic lockboxes limit access to real estate professionals who are licensees. Your agent can also use the lockbox to grant one-time access to service providers who are involved in the sale. Electronic lockboxes record exactly who enters your home and when. This is safer than a combination lock, in which the combination could be shared without your knowledge.
Source: National Association of Realtors
Realty Executives Midwest
1310 Plainfield Rd. Ste 2 | Darien, IL 60561
Office: 630-969-8880
E-Mail: experts@realtyexecutives.com
You’re scrolling through listings on your phone and everything looks good until you see the price (or the estimated monthly payment). Then you close the app.
Because even if you love the house, the numbers feel impossible. But here’s the thing.
Nationally, there are more homes sitting on the market than there are people out there looking. And when sellers need buyers more than buyers need sellers, that shows up in the price.
Lower asking prices. More price cuts. And homes priced for what buyers can actually afford – not what sellers hope someone might pay.
And it may be enough to make buying more doable than you’d think.
One of the clearest signs sellers are adjusting? Price cuts. HousingWire Data shows more than 40% of sellers are dropping this price.
That’s just slightly behind the volume we saw last year (see graph below):
That’s more than 4 out of every 10 homes listed. Think about what that means. That’s thousands of sellers deciding they’d rather lower their asking price than keep waiting for someone willing to stretch their budget.
They know that to sell, they have to be willing to do some give and take. And when no buyers are biting, they’re pulling their biggest lever to draw buyers back in – their price. As Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com, explains:
“This is a market where people are adjusting and showing up rather than giving up. Sellers are meeting the market with more realistic asking prices, which is helping deals get done.”
What about the other 6 in 10 sellers? A lot of them started with a lower asking price to begin with rather than test the higher price and get crickets from buyers.
That may be why July 2026 had the lowest median list price of any July in the past five years, according to Realtor.com (see the white line in the graph below):
Now, that doesn’t mean home values are falling or that everything’s suddenly a steal. Prices are still above where they were before the pandemic. But what it does mean is this.
Sellers no longer banking on bidding wars or expecting buyers to pay whatever they ask. Instead, many are listing at prices that better reflect today’s market from the very beginning.
And honestly, whether they’re pricing competitively from day one or adjusting after a few weeks on the market, the message for you is the same:
Sellers are more willing to meet you where you’re at.
Because in many markets throughout the country, you’re not fighting over a house anymore. Sellers are fighting over you. And that’s information you can use to get a better deal.
Yes, affordability can be a real challenge. And the monthly payment you take on definitely does matter. But if you’ve been assuming everything is out of budget, there may be more wiggle room than you think.
Right now, sellers are flexible on the price in ways they weren't before. Reach out to a local agent to take advantage of that flexibility.
Source:Keeping Current Matters
Realty Executives Midwest
1310 Plainfield Rd. Ste 2 | Darien, IL 60561
Office: 630-969-8880
E-Mail: experts@realtyexecutives.com
Most agents assume spring is the only market worth chasing. If you've been in this business long enough, though, you know late summer tells a different story — and the agents who get that are the ones closing deals while everyone else waits for next April.
There's a reason late summer gets written off — it feels slower. But feeling slow and being slow are two very different things. When the market quiets down, the clutter clears. Fewer listings mean more eyes on yours, and more eyes on yours mean your sellers have a real shot at the kind of weekend they actually hoped for when they decided to list.
Serious buyers don't vanish after Memorial Day — they just get quieter. Families who missed their spring window are still out there, still looking. Relocating professionals are working against real deadlines. And plenty of buyers who've been watching rates are getting impatient, knowing they can't wait forever.
What does that add up to for your listings? Motivated buyers with genuine urgency — the kind your sellers actually want coming through the door.
When other agents and sellers pull back for vacations and back-to-school prep, inventory tightens. Lower supply plus consistent demand creates conditions where pricing confidence is easier to defend — and your listings get more eyeballs simply because there are fewer of them.
Here's what typically defines this window:
Late summer might honestly be the best time of year for a home to look the part. Landscaping is lush, daylight is long, and photography conditions stay favorable well into the evening. For listings where first impressions drive offers — which is nearly all of them — that's not a small thing.
A few ways to help your sellers take full advantage:
Favorable conditions don't replace strategy. Even with tighter inventory, an overpriced home will sit — and sitting in late summer carries real consequences as the fall slowdown creeps closer. Help your sellers understand that a well-priced home in August almost always outperforms one relisted at the same number come October.
Your pricing conversations this time of year should factor in:
The agents who make the most of this season aren't doing anything complicated. They're pricing with confidence, marketing consistently, and running on systems that don't get in the way. That's a repeatable edge — and it starts with having the right foundation before the market shifts again.
If your current setup isn't keeping pace, now's a good time to see what a purpose-built platform actually looks like in practice.
Ask around and almost every homebuyer out there wants to know if there’s a way to get a better deal. And just about every seller wants to know if they’ll still get top dollar.
The interesting thing is… both can be right at the exact same time. It just depends on where you live.
That’s because today’s housing market isn’t moving in one direction anymore. Some markets clearly favor buyers. Others still favor sellers. But most are sitting somewhere in the middle.
And knowing which market you’re actually in can completely change the strategy you use to buy or sell (and what expectations you should have). Let’s break it down.
So how do you know which market you’re in? There’s one number that tells the story faster than anything else: the months’ supply of homes for sale. It’s the clearest signal of who’s got leverage – and what strategy you’ll need. Think of it like this.
Imagine no additional homes were listed starting today. Months’ supply tells us how long it would take to sell everything that’s currently on the market based on today’s demand.
Generally speaking, if months’ supply is:
Fewer than 4 months: Sellers usually have the advantage.
4 to 6 months: Buyers and sellers are on more equal footing.
More than 6 months: Buyers can usually negotiate for a better deal.
Right now, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) data says that number is 4.6 and that puts the overall market back in balanced territory (see graph below):
That means, as a whole, the market has finally moved back into a much more balanced range after years of being tilted in sellers’ favor. While that may look like the scales have tipped only slightly, it’s enough to make a real difference in what strategy you’ll need for your move – at least in most places.
Redfin data helps shed some light on how this shakes out across the country. It breaks down which cities are leaning in either direction (see graph below).
Some markets give buyers more leverage. Those are in blue.
Some still favor sellers. That’s the orange.
Others fall somewhere in between. Those are gray.
Notice anything? A lot more places are seeing more buyer-friendly conditions right now. In fact, this is the most buyer-friendly market we’ve seen in nearly 6 years.
But don’t take that as buyers have the upper hand everywhere.
There are still cities where sellers still have the power. And if you’re in one of them, your approach to selling or buying looks completely different than it would in a buyer-leaning market.
That’s why the biggest mistake isn’t thinking it’s finally a buyer’s market. And it isn’t thinking it’s still a seller’s market either. It’s making any assumption without talking to an expert agent first.
Today’s market is incredibly local. In one market, a buyer may be getting thousands of dollars in concessions from a seller. And a homeowner may have to consider dropping their price.
But in another, a buyer may be stressed about coming in with their best offer, or they may lose out on the home to another buyer. And a seller may still be seeing strong demand and prices inching higher.
Same overall housing market.
Very different experiences.
The truth is what’s happening in your back yard affects everything from pricing your house to making an offer to negotiating repairs or concessions. And that’s why an agent’s local knowledge matters more now than ever before.
Your plan has to be based on your neighborhood – and only an agent has the expertise to get that right.
This market isn’t one-size-fits-all.
If you're wondering who has the upper hand where you live, talk to a local agent. They’ll help you understand what's happening in your market, who's got the leverage, and what strategy gives you the best shot at getting what you want.
Source: Keeping Current Matters
Realty Executives Midwest
1310 Plainfield Rd. Ste 2 | Darien, IL 60561
Office: 630-969-8880
E-Mail: experts@realtyexecutives.com
If you’re a homeowner getting ready to move, one question usually comes first: should you buy your next home before you sell, or sell your current house before you start looking?
There’s no single right answer. The best call depends on your finances, your local market, and your timeline. And a trusted agent can help you weigh all of it.
But in a lot of cases these days, selling first puts you in the stronger spot.
Selling is usually the trickier half of a move today, so getting it done first clears your biggest hurdle. And that’s especially true right now, because there are more homes for sale than there are buyers, which means houses are taking longer to sell than they did a year or two ago.
So how does leading with your sale pay off? Let’s start with the money.
Buy before you sell, and you could end up carrying two mortgages at once. And especially since houses are staying on the market longer these days, that overlap may drag on for more time than you’d planned. And if unexpected repairs come up, it could get even more expensive.
Selling first takes that risk off the table, so you’re not multitasking homeownership. As Ramsey Solutions puts it:
“It’s best to sell your old home before buying a new one to avoid unnecessary risks and possible headaches.“
This is always true, but one of the biggest perks of selling first is that you’ll know exactly how much money you’re walking away with. And one of the big figures that matters in that conversation is how much equity you have in your current place.
Equity is basically your house’s value minus what you still owe on your mortgage. And it adds up fast. According to Realtor.com, homeowners who’ve been in their home for 5 years have about $180,000 in equity on average. And those who’ve had their home for 6-10 years? They have over $340,000.
After you sell, you can use that money to cover your down payment or even buy your next home in cash. And knowing that profit up front helps you plan your next move.
When your house is already sold, you don’t have to make your offer contingent on that sale. In a market where buyers are taking their time, that’s exactly what a seller wants to see.
Picture it from the seller’s side. If their house has been sitting for a while, they’ll gravitate toward the offer most likely to close without a snag.
That can also give you room to ask for a little more, like repairs, since a motivated seller would rather keep things moving than lose you and wait for another offer to come in. Your agent can help you make the most of your upper hand in that scenario.
Selling first has its tradeoffs too, and it helps to see the pros and cons side by side before you decide. Here’s a quick breakdown based on information from Zillow (see visual below):
The cons are manageable with the right plan, so talk about them with your agent. They can help you negotiate things like a rent-back, where you stay in your house for a set time after closing, or line up flexible closing dates to keep the transition smooth.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to buying and selling at once. But for a lot of homeowners, leading with the sale makes moving easier on their mind and their wallet.
Connect with a local agent, and they’ll help you navigate selling and buying with more confidence, more financial power, and less stress.
Source: Keeping Current Matters
Realty Executives Midwest
1310 Plainfield Rd. Ste 2 | Darien, IL 60561
Office: 630-969-8880
E-Mail: experts@realtyexecutives.com
Realty Executives agents are real estate experts. They have the education and expertise you need to navigate through the process of buying or selling a home. From listing at the right price to making the best offer, our Executives have witnessed the best - and most regrettable - decisions homeowners and homebuyers can make. Every day, they are immersed in every aspect of real estate that includes comparable home price analysis, property surveys, credit reports, open houses, HOA agreements, lenders, title companies, homeowners’ insurance, walk-throughs, terms of sale or purchase, repairs, concessions and closing documents. Let our accomplished Executives help navigate you through the process of buying or selling a home.
