Do you list before the home is done?

[William C.]

Question for all of you house flippers out there and also spec home builders or agents that list homes for the same..... Do you or have you ever listed and marketed your home for sale before you were complete? Why or why not? I never have. We have always staged ours houses as well and pricing is everything but we've been successful at selling at or above asking within the first 2 weeks. Given the market conditions right now, there is literally no homes on the market in our target price point in the neighbor we are building. We are adding a second floor to a rancher and redoing the inside from the basement up. I'm tempted to see if there are buyers out there willing to engage during the building stage. I'd be willing to allow them to customize some of the finishes with a signed agreement of sale and non refundable deposit (at least for any customized finishes). As an agent I helped a buyer purchase a home that was mid flip, and it was a success. I have always wanted to show the home in its absolute best light come time to sell, but it's a feeding frenzy out there and having a buyer lined up through the build phase would be great. I walked through a model home in a new subdivision near my house, in a different market than my project, and he mentioned they tried to market them as pre builds and had no luck, but once they had the model built they were able to sell about 20 since the end of last year. I lean towards having the finished product.