Did you know that right around 40{5ab75762cf707683d7af2475431dd95a23fbc9cf5cb8a45517116f350cf35bde} of people admit to crying during the home selling process? The stress associated with selling a house gets to them, especially when it begins to take a long time to unload their home.

So, how long does it take to sell a house? Well, the truth is that it really all depends.

In some cases, people can sell a house within just a few days. In others, a house might sit on the market for weeks, months, or sometimes even years on end without getting any buyers (this is when the tears start!).

Learning how to sell a home can make the home selling process go by a little quicker. So we’re going to break down how you should do it and try to give some insight into how long each step should take.

Continue reading to get a better feel for how long the home selling process should take you under normal circumstances.

Preparing to Sell a Home

Before people can list homes for sale and work their way through the home selling process, they have to prepare their homes. You’ll want your home to look its absolute best when it hits the open market.

Ideally, you should try to spruce up the curb appeal of your home to make it more appealing to buyers. You should also make any repairs that you’ve been putting off and even consider staging your home.

All of this should only take a week or so in most cases if that. But it’ll go a long way towards helping you to sell your home fast.

Listing a Home for Sale

Once you have your home prepared to hit the open market, you can go ahead and list it for sale. To do this, you’ll usually want to work closely with a real estate agent.

A real estate agent can come up with a listing for your home. They can also take photos of your home to show buyers what it’s all about.

And of course, a real estate agent can help you come up with the right price for your home. They’ll do all of this before listing it on the MLS and letting other agents know that it’s for sale.

Waiting for a Home to Sell

After you list your home for sale, you’ll need to sit back and wait for it to sell. This is typically the longest part of the home selling process.

The average American home is only sitting on the market for about three weeks these days. But you might have to wait a little longer than that depending on the condition of your home, the state of your local real estate market, etc.

You might also want to think about skipping this part of the home selling process by selling your home fast to a cash buyer. It’s easily the quickest way to sell a home in this day and age.

Working Towards Selling a Home

When you find a buyer for your home, you can negotiate the sale price of it. Once you reach an agreement, you can then work towards actually selling your home.

Many home buyers are going to want to have an inspection done prior to purchasing a home. They’re also going to need to have a home appraised if they’ll be using a mortgage to buy it.

In some instances, this portion of the home selling process can take longer than the previous part. You’ll need to be patient while a home buyer crosses all their Ts and dots all their Is as they inch their way closer to purchasing your home.

Moving Out of a Home

Once you’re confident that you have a deal with a buyer in place and you’re on the verge of closing on a home, you can begin to move out of it. In a perfect world, you should begin moving your things out of a home as far in advance as you can to reduce the stress associated with moving.

You might also be working on buying a new home of your own while selling one. It can make this whole home selling process even more stressful than it would be normally.

Whatever the case, you shouldn’t put off packing and moving until the last minute. You should begin to get your things together and move them out of your home so that you aren’t scrambling to do it right before you close.

Closing on a Home

Closing on a home will be the final step that you’ll take during the home selling process. When you close on a home, you will officially give ownership of the home to someone else.

Closing on a home will only take a few hours. But those few hours can be more eventful than they need to be if you don’t have all your ducks in a row.

You might want to bring a real estate lawyer in to go over the contract that you’ll be signing when you close on a home. You might also want to speak with your real estate agent about what else you can expect as you close on a home.

Get Ready to Start the Home Selling Process Today

Selling a house can be exciting. But it can also start to weigh on you if it drags on for entirely too long.

Now that you know all about the home selling process, you should mentally prepare yourself for what’s to come. You’ll be able to practice patience and steer clear of feeling too stressed out by taking all the right steps as you move closer to selling a house.

Get more great home selling tips by checking out the other real estate-related articles that we’ve put up on our blog.