I would list beginning of March if you want to be out June 1st. Even in hot markets some houses can take a bit longer to sell. Why would you not do an OH? It can create competition and urgency in potential buyers and also lead to bidding wars. My area has regular hot RE markets and the strategy is to have the house on the market for a few days, then host an OH on Sunday and accept offers on the following Tuesday.

Thank you both. I did read the "wrong agent" thread and got some ideas from that.

I wouldn't flat out refuse to have an open house if it were a strong recommendation from a local realtor I trusted. But I seem to be seeing them mainly for houses here that have been on the market a while (overpriced or somewhat funky and definitely not in move-in condition.) I think people are not having them so much right now, because there is so much competition for a well-maintained and updated house in an older Seattle neighborhood with a super-easy commute downtown. So realtors have plenty of buyers to look and a limited number of listings.

Our neighbor's house sold in 3 days for 60K more than asking and they didn't have an open house. (Plus their kitchen need to be gutted, which is probably why I've seen a contractor's vehicle there for the past month.)

Also, I've had realtor friends tell me that open houses are for meeting new clients, not really likely ways to sell the house. Do you think that's true? Anyone who seriously wants to buy it will be pre-qualified and working with a realtor, not just a neighborhood looky-loo. (I'm sure someone here could chime in that they bought their house after seeing it in an open house, I'm not saying it never happens.)

My hesitation to list earlier in the spring is that we really don't want to have to be out before June 1. Plus it might take til April to get all the "little things" done, since we have a new house to work on as well. I don't want to do a weird "rent back" scenario, either.

We got multiple offers and none of them from the open house which, I understand, was mobbed. They came from appointments made very shortly after the listing went up. The house was sold in 4 days.

We moved to the Seattle area and I think you are right, lori, in an extreme sellers market you do things differently.

I tried to time it to move from our home in the Midwest to our new home. It didn't work. We spent 7 weeks in hotels then several months in our new home while it was being finished.

No easy answer there.

Good luck.

Thanks, jn. So you know what I'm talking about. We are fortunate with regards to timing in that our new house is already "done" (well, we are still using an Office Depot folding dining table and some patio and camping furniture, but we have had our final inspection). That will help a lot with the decluttering and other aspects of the move. That's what a lot of the winter will be spent on-- deciding what makes the cut to go with us, what gets Craigslisted, Freecycled, etc.

My issues around timing are based on the fact that we are both planning to retire in the spring, and eventually we will have to set that date and work backwards from it. I'm still assuming it could take a month from accepted offer to closing, but I don't know. These are all things I need to talk to a realtor about, but first I need to find some to interview and pick one!

It's all local and my experiences were not in your market.

But we sold our first house off an open. Buyer was at the open on Sunday. Came back on Monday morningfor a showing and made an offer late Monday afternoon. We accepted that day. Second house sold to a couple that came to the open. Open on Sunday, they came back for showings twice and made an offer on Thursday. We accepted that offer. Those houses were both in Northern Virginia Our third house is in a different market. We bought after seeing it at an open, but in this market virtually every house has opens for two weekends and holds all offers until Wednesday and the sellers choose from their multiple bids that day. So basically all houses in this market sell to people who came to an open house.

So I would ask your prospective realtors about holding opens in your location. (Our agent for our second house also held a brokers open, at lunch time on Thursday, the day the house hit the MLS.)

When we hired an agent for our second house, we interviewed three and chose the one that had the best marketing plan. He had given clear thought to the most likely prospective buyer for our house given it's location and size and was able to tell us how he would target those buyers. He paid for professional photographs, provided flowers for our opens and provided light lunch for the brokers open. He advertised in a local paper (that may be less important now as the internet has become more dominant since we sold that place). Our house also had it's own website as well as appearing on the brokerage website. He also cut half a percentage off his commission when we asked at the interview, but only if the house sold in the first two weeks--said that would reflect his lower advertising costs.

Thank you, crl. Your examples are really helpful. I don't know how fast the real estate world is changing with all the new internet tools-- we've been in our house too long! We met our realtor at an open house in a different neighborhood when we had just gotten to the city. She quickly figured out what we wanted and showed us our house the day after a broker's open. We bought it immediately and they cancelled the open house. Probably not typical...

Just because your market is a sellers market this month does not guarantee it will be so next spring. Contact a few agents at the beginning of the year and ask them to keep you updated on the market.

Regarding the open house: it is true that very few homes sell from an open house, something like 2-4%. But that's talking about true open houses where someone is driving around and sees the signs and walks in.

Our marketing strategy is to list the home on a Thursday. That ensures the open house that Sunday will be visible on the web-scrapers such as Zillow and Trulia. We generally will allow showings if the home is vacant, but otherwise the agents/buyers have to wait until Sunday (exceptions are made for example, out of town buyers who can't make it on Sunday). So the "Open House" is really an "Open Showing" window and in a desirable house in a hot market will generally get multiple offers from the "Open House".

I just held an Open House last Sunday in the pouring rain, in a 100-year-old house, and couldn't get into the storage locker so had zero signs on the streets and only the regular post in the front yard. I sat in there anyway, just in case. And I did have a couple walk in who saw the Open House on Trulia.

We also do not always cancel an Open House, especially if it's the last minute and if it was advertised in the paper. We just don't want to look bad if people show up and the door is locked. I also held an open house that had just gone under contract and brought a list of nearby, similar homes on the market and I let people walk through the house just in case the contract fell through, you never know. Probably had a dozen folks come through even though it was another rainy day (although I did have signs all over the neighborhood). I thought we were lucky that the sellers were willing to do it since they were still occupying the home.

"but I was recently informed that she's kind of a B----, for what that's worth."

I'd try to find out more what this assessment is based on. It could be good or bad, depending on told you and why.

I'd try to find a RA who's respected by colleagues, realistic, and ethical. Can you look up feedback by former clients (e.g. on Redfin)?