Holiday Season-To List or Not to List

Clients often ask me whether they should list their home during the holiday season and early winter months. For others the question is, "Should I take my home off the market for the next three months?" There is no one set answer to either of these questions, but my general feeling would be to go ahead and list the property or keep it on the market, as the case might be.

Everybody knows that there is a large influx of homes that come on the market starting in late March or early April. In addition many sellers do take their homes off the market in November, December, and January. The consequence of this is that the inventory is always lower during those months of the year. Another way to look at that would be to say that there is less competition out there if your house is one of the ones that is on the market. Less competition is always good when you are the seller. A second, and very important consideration, is that any buyers who are looking at that time of year are far more likely to be serious buyers and not tire kickers. Who wants to stomp around in the snow and stormy weather looking at houses "just for fun" some Sunday afternoon? It would be an accurate generalization to say that the only buyers during those winter months are buyers who have to buy. What more could a seller ask for?

As a general rule, most people's homes are well decorated and very attractive during the month of December due to the holiday season. This helps the property show more like a "home" than a house, which generally would help in good sales appeal. In Durango, we often have a nice group of people coming to look at property during the month of December because they are combining their "real estate searching trip" with their trip to the ski area or visitation with friends etc. Our Team is very busy this month with buyers coming to town.

Who would be a good candidate not to have their house on the market during the holiday season? Often times you may have many family members coming to visit and is almost like they have camped out in your house. If you've got eight, 10, or 12 guests literally camped all over the place in sleeping bags etc. then that's not a good time to be showing the property. This is especially true if it is a small house and the extra people would make the place seem really cramped for space.

If you are an owner thinking about selling your Durango real estate, I would suggest giving Team Lorenz a call and let us put our 30+ years of experience to work for you. We are not just great marketing and effective websites, we are great at getting transactions closed during this very difficult market time when close to 50% of all transactions do not close. To learn a little more about what we do for you as a seller click the following link. Listing my Durango real estate.