For most homeowners, selling a home feels less like a straightforward transaction and more like taking on a second job. A job that doesn’t just demand your money but also your most precious resource: time. In fact, according to recent data, selling a home can consume over a third of your waking hours, turning your life upside down.
So, if you’re wondering how to sell a home without sacrificing your personal time (or sanity), keep reading.
The “Home Move Tax”
We all know time is valuable. Between work, family, and personal commitments, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Opendoor surveyed 1,000 recent home buyers and sellers to understand the true cost of time—of “Home Move Tax”—lost during the traditional real estate process. Here’s what they found:
- 71% of Americans say selling a home feels like a second job. This isn’t surprising when you consider everything involved, from cleaning and staging to repairs and showings.
- Employed buyers and sellers are losing PTO and work time. The report estimates that Americans lose over $430 million in missed work time just preparing their homes to sell.
- Quiet moving is on the rise. 13% of respondents admitted to taking time off work, without their employer knowing, to deal with moving tasks.
Selling a home can also take a toll on your well-being, with 85% of sellers reporting they lost sleep worrying about the sale. Here’s what kept them up at night:
- Offer falling through: 41%
- Saying “bye” to my home: 37%
- Offer acceptance: 36%
- Home prep for listing: 36%
- Leaving memories behind: 32%
- Managing repairs: 32%
How to Save Time (and Stress)
Every moment you spend on the home-selling process is a moment you could be spending elsewhere—on your career, with your family, or just taking a breather in a world that already feels too fast-paced. Recognizing the hidden time costs of selling your home allows you to make more informed decisions.
And that’s why working with the right real estate professional is so important. Think of us as your project manager, advocate, and guide rolled into one. We handle the heavy lifting—from setting a competitive price and staging your home to coordinating showings, managing negotiations, and navigating the mountain of paperwork.
At Raise the Bar Real Estate, we have every step of the selling process planned out before you even call us. While we customize each experience based on our sellers’ goals, we have several tried and true strategies for maximizing home sale proceeds and moving through the steps efficiently. We offer complementary staging consultations, provide reports to help you prepare for photos, and even spend time getting your home photo ready with staging accessories as needed. You’re not left alone wondering what to remove from the kitchen counters or how to make the beds to make them look nice!
Once your home is sparkling, that’s when we roll up our sleeves to create compelling marketing. Our YouTube videos typically reach 15,000+ viewers outside of the multiple listing service to ensure that your home gets maximum exposure, and combined views from Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms often exceed 20,000 after a week of marketing. Each week your home is listed, you’re getting an email from us with updates on ad views, showing feedback, and the steps we’re taking to market your home that week.
But beyond these tangible tasks, we offer something even more valuable: peace of mind. By tapping into local market knowledge, extensive networks, and experience, we can streamline the entire process, helping you avoid common pitfalls that consume time and energy. This means fewer sleepless nights worrying about the next step, and more time for what matters.