How Long Does It Take to Sell a House in Colorado? The Three Phases

You've got a reason to sell and a date in your head. A new job. A school year. A house you already want. So you typed it: how long does it take to sell a house?

Most people want a number of days. I won't give you one. It changes by the month and by the street. What I can give you is the shape of it: three parts, each with its own clock.

But first, a question. What's the date you actually need to be out by? And what happens if you miss it?

As long as the three parts add up to.

Getting ready is everything before the listing goes live. That part is mostly yours. On the market is buyers walking through while you wait for an offer you can take. Price is your lever there. Under contract to signing day runs on the dates in the Colorado contract, and on the buyer's loan.

Three things move all of it. The price, the condition of the house, and the buyer's loan. Get one wrong and that's usually the one that costs you the date.

Anywhere from a couple of weeks to a season. It depends on the house.

Clearing out, fixing what a buyer's inspector would flag anyway, paint, photos, and the seller's property disclosure. A house with an old roof and a basement full of twenty years takes longer.

The uncomfortable part, said once. The repair you skip now shows up later as an inspection objection. And the buyer's price to fix it is always higher than yours would have been.

The inspection is the one people skip. It lets you fix it, price around it, or disclose it on your terms.

So how's your house sitting right now? Ready this month, or does it need a season?

That's up to the price more than anything else.

A house priced at what it should sell for draws its offer in the first stretch of showings. A house priced at what the seller hopes for sits. And a listing that sits starts to look like it has a problem.

Condition and photos come next. Then the calendar. On the Front Range, spring and early summer bring the most buyers, and late fall and the holidays go quiet. In the mountain towns, the Vail Valley included, buyers come with ski season and again with summer. List against your season and you can lose weeks for no reason but the date.

Where did the price in your head come from? Comps, or what you need to walk away with?

A string of deadlines, in order.

The buyer puts up earnest money, and the title company holds it. Then the dates run: title review, your disclosures, the inspection objection and how it gets resolved, the appraisal, and the buyer's loan. At each one the buyer can walk if you can't agree. Once the last one passes, signing day gets set.

The inspection and the appraisal move the date most. A repair talk that drags drags everything. An appraisal under the price means somebody covers the gap or renegotiates.

Then the loan itself. A buyer with a loan moves at their lender's pace. That's how come the buyer's loan matters to you as much as their price. A big offer from a buyer whose loan was never really checked can cost you more time than a smaller one that funds.

Then work backward from that date, not forward from today.

Back up from the day you need to be gone, through all three parts. That's the day you should be starting. Most people find out it was a few weeks ago.

And what happens if you miss it? A job that starts without you? A lease that runs out? A house you're buying that needs this one sold first?

Each one has a fix, and each fix costs something. A rent-back after signing day can buy you time in the house. If you're buying at the same time, the two signing days have to line up, or you need a bridge between them.

A couple in Arvada had to be in Grand Junction before the school year started. They counted back from that date and started in early spring. A pre-listing inspection found two things that would have become objections, so they fixed them. We priced to the street, not the hope. The offer came in the first stretch of showings, from a buyer whose loan had actually been checked. The inspection took one phone call. Signing day landed a week before the move.

I hold a Colorado mortgage broker license and a Colorado real estate broker license. I run the sale and the loan on your next house on the same numbers, so both signing days get planned together. See the sell your Colorado home page. In the Vail Valley I do the showings myself. In the Denver Metro, a showing team is on the ground while I run the sale, the offer, and the loan.

Price it right the first week. Fix what the inspector will find before the inspector finds it. List into your season, not against it.

Ask about the buyer's loan before you sign. A real pre-approval, not a letter printed off a website. Have your papers ready the day the contract is signed.

What I'd push back on is the kind of "faster" that means taking a low cash offer to skip all of it. Speed has a price, and it's usually your equity.

Speed has a price, and it's usually your equity.

If the date matters more than the money, that's a fair choice. Just make it on purpose. So which one matters more to you right now?