[WalterBright]

My neighbor's house is empty, as he just moved out. It's for sale, and it's far easier to prep a house for sale when empty. As soon as they finish the prep, a for sale sign will go up. Then it will sit empty till it is bought, and will then sit empty until closing and the new owner will move in.

It may sit for a month or 6 waiting for a buyer.

Now, multiply this by all the turnover in the housing market, and there will be many "empty" homes at any one time.

[bmitc]

In my area, homes sell over a weekend and typically the owner lives in them until closing basically. The open houses are nearly always done with the owners’ stuff still in the house. The houses sit empty for maybe a week. Is it really that common for a seller to move out while it is trying to be sold? Such a person would need a lot of money to do so.

[WalterBright]

If you're moving, it's kinda hard to buy a new house the same day you sold the old house.

In the car dealer business, cars usually sit for a month on the dealer's lot before they sell. Car dealers hate that, because they borrow money to put the inventory on the lot, and pay interest on that money.

It's the same for house sellers. Leaving a house vacant cost thousands of dollars a month. Sellers aren't letting it sit vacant for fun. When I've sold a house, I was painfully aware of the vacancy costs, and always tried to price it to get it sold ASAP.

[bombcar]

If I remember correctly the house should sell in 2-3 months (earlier and it was priced too low, longer and priced too high).

Interestingly realtors houses stay on the market longer and sell for more than their customer’s houses …

[WalterBright]

Realtors have different incentives in selling other peoples' homes than selling their own.

[dagw]

In my area, homes sell over a weekend

That was true in my neighbourhood as well, up until a few month ago. Now I know two or three people around me that have moved and have been trying to sell their houses for months and aren't even getting low ball bids.

But even if you manage to sell your house within 24 hours of putting it on the market without having to do any work on it, there can still be a few months lag between you actually moving out and the new owner moving in.

[joe-collins]

> It may sit for a month or 6 waiting for a buyer.

Gotta love that oh-so-efficient market.

[motoxpro]

The wait just means there is low liquidity i.e. the spread is wide. They could sell it this minute if they offered it for 100$ but they are in "no rush" so they are willing to wait. Opendoor is trying to solve this by pretty much being a market maker for homes. This comment is independent of "should the housing market be more liquid" just a general "markets" comment

[WalterBright]

People who price high usually will have to wait longer for a buyer. In a hot market, the times will be less, in a cold market, more.

[hackeraccount]

Like Democracy the alternatives are worse.