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The Hidden Costs of a Slow Flip: How Days-on-Market Impacts Profit Margin
Flipping is one of the most popular real estate strategies for investors. While it might seem easy on paper, it requires fast decision-making and careful…

Flipping is one of the most popular real estate strategies for investors. While it might seem easy on paper, it requires fast decision-making and careful budgeting. One of the most overlooked aspects of the flipping process is also what can have the biggest impact on your profit margin: your days on market (DOM).
A slow flip is when a property spends more days on the market than expected after being renovated. Various factors can explain why a flipped property isn’t selling, from declining demand in the neighborhood to the minimal nature of renovations and a poor pricing strategy. Whatever the reason, the outcome remains the same.
Every day your property stays on the market, the more your profit margin shrinks. It’s not only a lost opportunity to generate profit, but you’ll also still be liable for expenses like utilities, mortgage payments, and property taxes. An extended DOM can quickly start to cost you thousands, especially if the market is beginning to cool. The longer your property stays on the market, the more you’re likely to have to lower the price to attract potential buyers.
In just a few weeks, your lucrative flip could become a financial drain. With Privy, investors have data-driven insights to make smarter decisions to reduce their DOM and take a flip from listing to closing in just days.

Understanding Days-on-Market (DOM)
Days on market (DOM) is a key metric every investor needs to be familiar with. It is used to track the number of days a property has remained active on the market before it goes under contract.
Your DOM counter starts ticking as soon as your property is listed on a Multiple Listing Service and stops once an offer is accepted, putting the property under contract. Most MLS platforms automatically track a listing’s DOM stat, making it publicly visible on marketplace websites.
There are two types of DOM metrics to be aware of. ‘Active DOM’ is the most common and is the number of days the current listing for a property has been active. In some cases, you’ll see a cumulative DOM (CDOM), which tracks the total number of days a property has been on the market, including if it was previously listed without being sold.
It’s crucial to look out for CDOM as it usually suggests a property has been withdrawn and re-listed and may have been reduced in price previously. Some sellers choose to relist their properties deliberately to reset their DOM metric.
Average DOM Benchmarks in Hot vs. Slow Markets
It’s important to consider a DOM metric in the context of its market conditions. Location, price point, and features like occupancy can cause the benchmark DOM to fluctuate between markets. It’s also worth conducting a comparative market analysis (CMA) to determine if the property is fairly priced or if the market is stagnant.
In a hot market, properties have an average DOM of 7 to 15 days if they’re competitively priced with an effective marketing strategy. By comparison, slower markets can see an average DOM of over 60 days. Some property types will have a smaller buyer demographic, meaning their DOMs will be higher, but should be compared against similar markets, particularly in rural areas and for luxury properties.
If you’re planning to flip a property, you need to consider what a high DOM signals to potential buyers. A property on the market for months is less likely to attract new showings or offers.
Before purchasing your investment property, determine what the local DOM benchmark is and factor it into your financial planning. You should budget for paying the ongoing expenses for your property for at least this duration.
Why DOM Matters More to Investors Than Traditional Sellers
Although DOM is a metric that all stakeholders pay attention to, it’s even more important for investors than traditional sellers. Some sellers can afford to wait to sell their home and don’t face the same time constraints, especially if they’re selling a second home or have already secured another property.
Here’s why DOM matters to investors:
- Every day your property stays on the market adds to your holding costs as fixed expenses, such as loan interest and utilities, continue to accumulate.
- Most flippers and BRRRR investors rely on a fast sale to access capital for their next project. A slow flip prevents them from exploring future opportunities and slows their portfolio growth.
- Market volatility and an extended DOM can practically decimate your profit margin if interest rates increase, or demand drops at any stage during your flipping process.
- The longer a property sits on the market, the less likely it is to sell for its asking price – or at all!
- An extended DOM gives buyers the negotiating power, with investors often finding themselves accepting lower offers to cut their losses.
DOM is not just another number on a property listing. Ignoring your DOM metric and failing to account for your market’s average DOM can cause a headache when trying to sell your property. Understanding DOM and how to minimize your DOM is key to avoiding a slow flip, allowing you to optimize your profits and free up capital.
The Financial Consequences of Extended DOM
An extended DOM doesn’t just mean it’s taking longer to sell your property. You’ll start feeling the financial consequences of an extended DOM within just a few weeks. Hidden costs like interest payments, utilities, and HOA fees can quickly mount up, while having your capital tied into an unsold property slows down your portfolio. Slow flips create a financial bottleneck for investors, especially if they’re relying on a property sale for cash flow.
A prolonged DOM doesn’t just delay your big payday, it introduces serious financial vulnerabilities that most investors don’t prepare for. Holding costs are a silent profit killer. While they may seem small in isolation, they can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. If your property is in a market with an average 60+ day DOM, you’ll need to have accounted for these costs in your initial forecasting.
When you start to feel the financial pressure, you’re more likely to lower the asking price for your property. Instead of giving you a quick sale, it often signals to buyers that a seller is desperate or that they’re willing to accept an even lower offer. This situation often creates a downward spiral that could lead to multiple price reductions or withdrawing and re-listing the property.
3 Common Causes of Slow Flips
Sometimes market conditions are responsible for a slow flip, but it’s more often the consequences of an investor’s poor decision-making. We’re exploring three of the most common causes for extended DOM and how they can impact your profit margin.
- Overpricing Based on Inaccurate or Outdated Comps
The number one cause of a slow flip is investors listing their properties at the wrong asking price. This scenario typically happens when an investor is relying on outdated comps or solely on a professional appraiser to determine the property’s valuation. If a market has experienced a sudden downturn, using outdated comps may result in a higher listing price than its current true value.
Overpricing can also happen if investors use non-renovated properties as part of their comps, creating unrealistic expectations for their potential profit margins. Being guided by a profit goal can often derail your pricing strategy, distracting you from what is realistic in the current market.
If you overprice a property with inaccurate or outdated comps, you’ll receive fewer offers and showings. As your DOM extends, buyers will become more skeptical of your property. You can avoid this risk by using Privy’s LiveCMA to access real-time, accurate data about comparable properties to make informed pricing decisions.
- Renovation Delays and Additional Works
Flipping is a time-sensitive strategy. Every delay incurs attentional costs and increases the risk of potential market volatility wiping out your profit margin. Renovations create multiple opportunities for delays and an increased financial burden.
Many investors get caught up in the process of renovating, adding additional works in a scenario that’s known as “scope creep”, causing repairs to go beyond their intended timeline and budget. Having an unreliable contractor can also cause unexpected delays, which may result in your listing missing an optimized market window, such as late spring in April and May. If your property is listed during a slower season with lower buyer activity, it’s more likely to have an extended DOM.
You can avoid these common causes of slow flips by accounting for potential delays in your financial planning and aligning your renovation schedule with DOM trends by using Privy’s investor-focused data.
- Ineffective Marketing and Low-Quality Listing Photos
No matter how stunning your renovations are, if your buyers don’t see it, they can’t buy it. Low-quality listing photos and ineffective marketing are often the Achilles’ heel that impacts the profit margin of a flipped property. Today’s buyers expect high-quality photos and will scroll past a listing without HD photos and additional content, like walk-through videos and drone footage.
The less attractive your listing is to potential buyers, the longer it’ll stay on the market. Make sure to correctly stage your listing photos, including budgeting for a professional photographer, and provide an in-depth property description that includes key upgrades and main features.
How Privy Helps Prevent Slow Flips
Privy helps you avoid the hidden costs of a slow flip by supporting smart decision-making based on real-time data and investor insights. You can quickly compare DOM insights by neighborhood to set realistic expectations and avoid overpricing by using real-time comp data that also accounts for pending sales and off-market transactions.
Here are 4 ways Privy enables investors to minimize their DOM:
- Accurate ARV estimates
Accurate ARV estimates to avoid mispricing as a result of outdated or irrelevant comps. You can quickly filter local comps by relevant metrics for your property, including square footage and renovation status. Determining the true market value of your property prevents the need for a price reduction after an extended DOM.
- Research DOM Intelligence by Area
Understand your local market with live DOM insights on a neighborhood level, showing how long comparable properties have been on the market and which areas have a lower DOM average. Monitoring the local DOM benchmark enables investors to adapt their pricing strategy, including their initial offer price when buying the property.
- Comparable Timeline Analysis
Privy gives you a 360-degree view of the local market, going beyond the final sale price to tell you how long it took a renovated property to sell, and the type of work carried out.
Comparing similar flipped properties makes it easier to identify how potential renovations may impact your days on market. You may uncover trends that show fully renovated properties sell faster than those with cosmetic upgrades in that area. These data-driven insights make it easier to reverse-engineer your renovation timeline and budget to achieve your investment goals.
- Avoid Overpricing with Price Validation
Privy’s comprehensive data gives investors the support they need to develop their pricing strategy, leveraging real-time data to know the current value of their property.
Overpricing is one of the leading causes of an extended DOM, especially if a market is beginning to plateau. Privy can validate your listing price before it goes live and provide active comps to track its current value.
Avoid the Hidden Costs of a Slow Flip with Privy’s Comprehensive Data for Smarter Investing
A successful flipping strategy requires more than just buying a property at a low price and renovating it up to a market standard. It’s just as important to effectively execute your exit strategy. Poor marketing, a weak sales strategy, renovation delays, and overpricing can leave your property on the market for longer, biting into your profit margins day by day.
These situations are easy to avoid by leveraging real-time data to understand the market and run accurate comps of similar properties. At Privy, we’re here to help you maximize your profit margins with smarter and faster investing decisions.
Ready to start flipping properties? Attend an on-demand demo to see Privy’s direct-to-MLS data in action and for a guided tour of Privy’s features, showing you how to maximize your investment strategy to minimize your days-on-market and optimize your profit margins.
Avoid the Hidden Costs of a Slow Flip with Privy’s Comprehensive Data for Smarter Investing
A successful flipping strategy requires more than just buying a property at a low price and renovating it up to a market standard. It’s just as important to effectively execute your exit strategy. Poor marketing, a weak sales strategy, renovation delays, and overpricing can leave your property on the market for longer, biting into your profit margins day by day.
These situations are easy to avoid by leveraging real-time data to understand the market and run accurate comps of similar properties. At Privy, we’re here to help you maximize your profit margins with smarter and faster investing decisions.
Ready to start flipping properties? Attend an on-demand demo to see Privy’s direct-to-MLS data in action and for a guided tour of Privy’s features, showing you how to maximize your investment strategy to minimize your days-on-market and optimize your profit margins.