Homes for sale in the Chicago-area are now being bought faster due to the recent development of technology tools for real estate.
RE/MAX reported that the average time that a house for sale spends in a listing in Chicago has fallen from 139 days in 2012, to 93 days in 2015, a 33 percent reduction in average market time over a three year period.
In the press release of RE/MAX in PR NewsWire, Jim Merrion, the regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, said that there are two reasons why the market time of homes for sale have experienced a significant reduction.
The first reason is that many of the technological advances in the past years have given buyers and brokers new tools to make the home buying process easier and faster. The rise of Smartphone allows buyers, wherever they may be, to view new listings immediately and set up a showing if they are interested.
"Years ago, considerable time was lost calling people and leaving messages," said Brian Corwell of RE/MAX Sauk Valley in Sterling, Ill. "Now, we use text messaging and stay in essentially constant contact when needed. I've worked with buyers while sitting on a Mexican beach. Plus, there are excellent mobile apps - RE/MAX Northern Illinois has one - that give buyers all kinds of great tools they can use anywhere."
The second reason is the confidence the buyers get due to the rising home values. There are a lot of homebuyers that are in search of an available property but there is only a limited supply of homes in the Chicago market. The limited supply encourages buyers to act quickly, especially if their desired home has multiple offers.
"When my friends wanted to downsize to a townhouse, they faced a limited supply and had to be aggressive. The home they bought was on the market for just five days," said Josie Morrison of RE/MAX Action in Lisle, Ill. "Conversely, the house they were selling had ample competition and took considerably longer."
