Insider Intel

Real estate experts reveal 5 tricks to sell a home faster in Texas

Adhere to this list and watch the offers roll in.

Photo courtesy of Opendoor

Moving to a new home is one of life's most stressful events, and that stress can be compounded for someone who's looking to sell their existing home quickly.

Knowing what home buyers are looking for is key for home sellers who are on a crunched timeline or just want to sell their home with as little stress and hassle as possible. Opendoor dug into data from thousands of recent Texas buyers to uncover local insights about what buyers want, in turn helping homeowners understand what it currently takes to sell their homes in record time.

Here's what Opendoor’s data tells us about what matters most when selling your home in Texas:

1. Know why buyers are moving
The top reason why most Opendoor customers (18.9 percent) moved in 2018 was because they were downsizing, but a similar amount of people (18.1 percent) were looking to upsize their living space. Less than 10 percent of home sellers were moving because of retirement or because they needed the cash equity in their home. Understanding why people want to move can help a seller target the right buyers and play up the right aspects of a for-sale home to potential buyers as they tour it.

2. Optimize open houses
Home buyers value flexibility while they're in the middle of their house hunt. Opendoor's data shows that the peak time for home visits in Texas is between 2 and 4 pm, so if you're listing a home and planning to hold it open on the weekends, keep that time frame in mind. Thursday is the lowest traffic day for home shoppers and Saturday and Sunday are the highest. For buyers looking for the ultimate in flexibility, they can tour any Opendoor home from 6 am-9 pm, seven days a week.

3. Timing is everything
It's no secret that the most popular time to sell a home is in the spring and summer months. People who want to sell quickly should consider putting their homes on the market ASAP, since the spring (February and March) saw the highest numbers of interested home buyers in 2018. Nationally, most homes (60 percent) trade hands between May and August.

4. Price accurately
It may be tempting for a seller to list their house for an overly ambitious asking price, but they should recognize that the longer the house stays on the market, the more their move will be delayed and the less likely they are to get that shoot-for-the-stars price. For example, a house currently spends an average of 48 days on the market in Dallas, which is slightly higher than what it was last month, and would add nearly two months to a home seller's timeline. Homes priced over $300,000 are sitting even longer.

5. Cosmetic fixes are key
Don't underestimate the power of a coat of paint. Opendoor sells hundreds of Dallas-Fort Worth homes each month and sees a stronger interest in homes with new paint, carpet, and appliances. Investing in an overall deep clean; lawn care; and fresh, neutral-colored paint can be instrumental in getting a home up to the standard of today's buyers, who want to walk into your home and envision their own life there — not yours. Hiring local tradespeople for painting and lawn care, or even a TaskRabbit to help declutter, can speed up the timeline for accomplishing these tasks.

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This is the income you need to buy a starter home in Dallas right now

Photo by Zac Gudakov on Unsplash

Dallas and Austin lead the nation for improving starter-home affordability.

A new housing affordability report shows Dallas is among the nation's top metros for improving starter-home affordability. First-time buyers are finally catching a small break, with the income needed to purchase a median-priced starter home falling in 2026.

Dallas residents need to earn $83,096 to afford a median-priced home in the metro area, or 5.1 percent less than they did last year, the Redfin report found.

Dallas had the third-biggest decline in the income needed to afford a starter home out of the 50 U.S. metros analyzed in the report. Redfin also determined that all starter home listings in Dallas are "affordable" based on the city's median household income — which the report estimates at $103,144.

Dallas still has a far higher income required to afford a starter home compared to the national average, but affordability is improving slightly across the board. Americans need to make $70,693 to afford the typical starter home, according to the report's findings.

"The income needed to buy a starter home is declining while earnings are rising," the report said. "The typical American household earns an estimated $87,599, about $17,000 more than what’s needed to buy the median-priced U.S. starter home. That gap is widening: A year ago, the typical American earned roughly $12,500 more than they needed to buy a starter home."

Still, starter home affordability is "still often out of reach" for first-time homebuyers in expensive real estate markets due to "near high record" sale prices and soaring mortgage rates, the study said.

In neighboring Fort Worth, residents only need to make $77,886 to afford a starter home — an attainable milestone based on the city's estimated median household income of $93,102. Fort Worth ranks fourth nationwide for its year-over-year improvement in starter home affordability.

For additional comparison, this is the income needed to afford a starter home in other major Texas metros:

Austin – $92,607 (down 6.1 percent)
Houston – $70,384 (down 4 percent)
San Antonio – $62,859 (down 3.7 percent)

Unfortunately, affording a home in the overall housing market is further straining Americans' wallets. American households need to make just under $110,000 afford the typical U.S. home, but Redfin's evaluation found the typical household makes about $22,000 less than that.

"The discrepancy is partly because the overall market is driven by outsized price increases in the luxury segment, and outsized price increases in places like San Francisco and West Palm Beach, where affluent buyers are active," the report said. "At the same time, some would-be buyers of starter homes are pulling back because they typically earn less money and are more sensitive to affordability pressures."

The top 10 U.S. metros with the biggest declines in the income required to afford the typical starter home are:

No. 1 – Austin, Texas
No. 2 – Oakland, California
No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
No. 4 – Fort Worth, Texas
No. 5 – Denver, Colorado
No. 6 – San Francisco, California
No. 7 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 8 – Las Vegas, Nevada
No. 9 – Houston, Texas
No. 10 – Los Angeles, California

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This is the income you need to buy a starter home in Dallas right now