How Long Does it Take to Sell a San Diego House?

The San Diego real estate market has been a good one for sellers over the last year. With dwindling supply and increasing demand, San Diego sellers have been selling their houses faster and for more money than they could have predicted. However, that doesn’t really give a good indication of how long the process to sell a San Diego house really takes.

Just because you accepted an offer quickly does not mean that the process is over. Here’s what you need to know about the timeline to sell a San Diego house.

The Listing Process

Before someone can buy your San Diego house, it is typically listed it on the MLS with a real estate agent. This includes having your agent or a professional real estate agent out to your house to take the listing photographs. From there you and your agent will look at comps and determine what asking price you want to ask for your San Diego house.

With that completed, your agent will write up a listing description and submit it to you for review. Even if you are fast to respond to your agent, this could take several days.

However, if you are slow to respond and not accommodating with your schedule to getting the photos taken, then the process could be much longer. The actual process of listing your house takes no more than 15 minutes once the rest of the steps are completed to prepare the listing.

Receiving an Offer

The average number of days that a house sits on the market for is 65 days. Now, many markets like San Diego are experiencing hot seller’s markets. This means some sellers are accepting offers within a few days of listing their house. But this is not something that San Diego home sellers should simply expect to happen.

Getting to Closing

Listing the house and receiving an offer are actually the easier steps when it comes time to sell a San Diego house. Once you have accepted an offer on your house, the real work begins.

On average, this process takes around 50 days. The steps involved depend heavily on the type of mortgage that the buyer is using. If they are paying cash for the house then closing can be much faster.

But if the buyers are getting a mortgage, they will most likely need to get an inspection and an appraisal. This is called the due diligence process. If the buyer finds something that the sellers misrepresented or that goes along with one of their contingencies, they can still back out of the deal.

There are a number of reasons the sale of a San Diego house can fall through. However, the most common are due to lack of getting approval for financing, issues with the inspection, or the house not appraising high enough.

Once you make it to closing, you will receive your funds. It could be received as a check, but many times the funds are wired from the escrow account to your account.

San Diego sellers will walk away at closing with the money in your name. From there, you need to move out, or you may already have to be out depending on what is written in your agreement with the buyer. At this point, the process is complete.