Why Your First Weekend on the Market Matters
When preparing to sell a home, it is easy to focus most of your attention on the end of the process: receiving an offer, negotiating the price and conditions, and ultimately getting the property sold. However, a lot of what influences that outcome happens before an offer is ever written. The first few days that a home is available for sale are particularly important because this is when the property is new to the market and is being seen for the first time by buyers who have already been monitoring that neighbourhood, property type or price range. It does not mean that every home needs to sell during its first weekend, nor does a longer sale necessarily mean that something went wrong. However, you only get one opportunity to introduce a property to the market as a new listing, which is why we put so much emphasis on making sure the home is properly prepared before that happens.
A Good First Weekend Actually Starts Before the Listing Goes Live
A successful launch is rarely the result of something that happens after the listing is already online. In most cases, the work begins weeks before the property appears on MLS. For our listings, that process generally starts with a staging consultation so that we can identify anything that should be addressed before buyers see the home. Some properties may benefit from additional staging, while others simply need some rearranging or smaller changes. We also typically arrange a pre-list home inspection, a deep cleaning of the property, professional photography and videography, a 3D tour, floor plans and physical signage. When we are selling a condominium, we also order the status certificate ahead of time so that an interested buyer can review the condominium documents without unnecessarily delaying the process.
There is a reason we try to have all of this completed before the home goes on the market. Buyers form an opinion about a property well before they walk through the front door. They are looking at the photographs, the room dimensions and floor plans, the description, the price and the information that has been made available to them. If something is missing, unclear or poorly presented, some buyers will simply move on to another listing. Preparing everything in advance gives the property the best opportunity to make a strong first impression while also making it easier for buyers and their agents to obtain the information they need to decide whether they would like to see the home.
Pricing Can Determine Whether Buyers Even Book a Showing
Pricing is another major part of the launch, and the appropriate strategy can change significantly depending on the property and the market. In the Ottawa market we are currently seeing, we are generally pricing homes around their expected market value rather than automatically pricing low with the expectation of creating a bidding war. That said, there is no pricing strategy that makes sense for every property. The neighbourhood, recent comparable sales, competing homes currently available for sale, the condition of the property and overall market conditions all need to be considered before deciding where a home should be positioned.
One of the challenges with intentionally starting too high in order to “test the market” is that sellers do not always see the interest they are losing. A buyer may find the property online, look through every photograph, discuss it with their Realtor and ultimately decide that the asking price is too far above what they believe the home is worth. They never schedule a showing, so from the seller’s perspective that buyer never existed. When this happens repeatedly, it can look as though there is simply no interest in the home, even though plenty of buyers may have seen the listing. This is particularly important during the first week because that is typically when a new listing receives some of its greatest initial exposure. You can adjust a price later, but you cannot make the listing new again.
The Marketing Should Be Ready When the Property Launches
There is also an important difference between putting a property on MLS and properly launching it. When one of our listings goes live, our wonderful operations specialist works together with the listing Realtor to make sure the different parts of the launch happen at approximately the same time. The property is listed on MLS and Realtor.ca, but it is also added to our website, promoted through social media, sent through our email database of several thousand people, shared through our brokerage and agent network, and promoted through channels such as Instagram and YouTube. We also use social media advertising as part of our standard listing marketing when appropriate for the property.
The benefit of this approach is not simply that the home appears in more places. What matters is that the marketing is coordinated. Ideally, we do not want to list a home and then spend the following several days putting together the pieces that should have been ready beforehand. By the time the property becomes available for sale, the photos and videos have already been completed, the marketing material has been prepared, the listing information has been reviewed and the strategy for the first weekend is already in place. This allows us to take advantage of the initial attention around a new listing instead of trying to create that momentum several days after the home has already appeared on the market.
Buyers Need a Reasonable Opportunity to See the Home
Generating attention is only useful if buyers are actually able to get inside the property. For this reason, we generally recommend launching sometime during the week so that there is enough time for buyers and their Realtors to notice the home, discuss it and arrange a showing before the weekend. We will also typically schedule the first open house for that weekend and, depending on the property and the amount of interest, may hold more than one. At the same time, private showings remain extremely important, and we encourage sellers to accommodate as many reasonable showing requests as possible during those first few days.
Of course, keeping a home ready for showings is not always convenient, particularly for a family that is still living in it. The objective is not to make the selling process unnecessarily disruptive. However, the first weekend is one of the times when some additional flexibility can be worthwhile. If a serious buyer has a limited window to see the property and cannot get in, there is always a possibility that they will simply move on to another home. We therefore try to plan the launch with the sellers ahead of time so that showing availability can be balanced with their schedule rather than figuring it out as requests begin coming in.
The First Weekend Gives Us More Than Just Offers
One of the biggest misconceptions about the first weekend is that its success should be judged solely by whether an offer is received. An offer is obviously a positive outcome, but the first few days also provide us with a significant amount of information about how the market is responding to the property. We look at the number of showings, attendance at the open house, online engagement, comments from buyers and their Realtors, questions that repeatedly come up and, of course, any offer activity. Once enough people have seen the property, patterns can start to emerge that help us determine whether our original expectations were accurate.
For example, if a home receives ten or fifteen showings during its first few days but no offers, I would not automatically consider that a problem or recommend an immediate price reduction. A strong number of showings can be a sign that buyers believe the property is positioned reasonably enough to consider. At that point, the feedback becomes much more important. If several unrelated buyers are raising the same concern about price, condition or another feature of the home, that is information we need to take seriously. On the other hand, if showing activity is healthy, the feedback is generally positive and there is no consistent objection, it may simply take some patience for the right buyer to come along.
The opposite situation can also tell us something. If a home is receiving plenty of online exposure but very few buyers are choosing to see it in person, we need to consider why there is a gap between people looking at the listing and people taking the next step. Price may be part of the issue, but it could also be the way the property is presenting online, competition from another listing or something specific about the home that buyers are reacting to. The important part is not to overreact to one comment or one quiet day, but to look at the information collectively and determine whether there is a meaningful pattern.
What Happens After the First Weekend Is Just as Important
Once the first weekend is complete, we review that information with the seller and put it into the context of the broader market. This includes the feedback we received, the amount of showing activity, engagement with the listing, any offers or inquiries and changes in the competition. A new comparable sale may have occurred, another similar property may have come onto the market, or a competing listing may have reduced its price. All of these things can affect how buyers view the property, which is why the listing strategy should continue to be evaluated after launch rather than being treated as something that was decided once and cannot change.
There are situations where the first weekend tells us that an adjustment should be considered, but there are also many situations where the right recommendation is to stay the course. Not every properly priced and marketed home sells within three days, particularly in a more balanced real estate market. Different neighbourhoods, property types and price ranges move at different speeds. Our role is to help the seller distinguish between a normal amount of time on market and evidence that something in the strategy may need to change.
You Only Get One Chance to Be the New Listing
A home does not need to sell during its first weekend for the launch to have been successful. What matters is that we make good use of the initial period when the property is new, buyers are discovering it and we are beginning to receive real feedback from the market. Once that period has passed, the home can still be marketed effectively and ultimately sell very well, but we cannot recreate the exact attention that comes with appearing as a brand-new listing for the first time.
For that reason, a large part of the work involved in selling a home happens before the listing ever goes live. Preparing the property, addressing potential concerns, determining an appropriate pricing strategy, completing the photography and marketing, planning the launch and making the home available for buyers all contribute to the first impression the property makes. In many ways, the first weekend is simply when we begin to see the results of decisions that were made well before the For Sale sign went up.
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