Why you should you put your home on the market before Christmas?

The housing market is traditionally slower over Christmas as buyers are distracted with their celebrations, but it is still possible to attract a buyer, so we highly recommend you put your home on the market. 

We all know—or maybe we assume—that spring and summer are the best times to sell a home. And it’s true that many buyers do plan their new home purchases during the warmer months. But with the Internet, smartphones, tablets and our always-on lifestyle, that conventional wisdom isn’t relevant anymore. The reality is, the home buying season is now year-round.

If your home is for sale now, you’re actually in a great position to sell your home faster by taking advantage of the unique characteristics of the holiday selling season.

Here are our top reasons why now might be the right time to sell

Motivated Buyers

Anyone who takes time out of their busy holiday schedule to visit a property is serious about buying now. Millions of people visit relatives at Christmas time. Some of them will also eye up the property market, checking prices, contemplating possible moves. There is a window of opportunity here.

They may be few in number, but there are some people whose idea of a perfect Christmas present to a loved one, is a stunning penthouse with breathtaking Mediterranean sea views like this

Whatever their reason, make it easy for these folks to get a good look at your home by staying flexible with your showing times and be open to negotiating.

Your Home Looks Great

Emotion plays a huge role in which home buyer purchase, and you can capitalize on that by making your home cozy and cheery during showings. Tasteful decorations and a minimum of clutter will allow buyers to see their own families celebrating the holidays in your home next year.

Make sure your decorations enhance rather than detract from your home’s best features, and remember to remove them as soon as the season is over.

Today’s buyers never stop looking online

To have your home discovered during this timeframe, it must be on the market. Word-of-mouth, drive-by sightings, and other forms of direct-contact marketing diminish significantly in effectiveness during bad weather periods. Homes advertised correctly online during this time get significantly more exposure than the average home, and those sellers that are taking a break from being on the market are as good as non-existent to the online buyer.

Has your home been on the market too long? This could be a great time to lower the price or change your strategy.

If your property has been sitting on the market for months, most buyers and their agents will see it as stale or overpriced and disregard it — no matter how great it is or how light the competition currently is.

In that scenario, it’s time to take action, and the year-end holidays can be a golden opportunity to shift course. Making a dramatic price reduction or overcoming some major obstacle that has been preventing the sale might be just the right thing to do this time of year. If you had lower offers early on but you weren’t ready to accept them, or you keep hearing that there are issues with the way your property shows, this could be your chance to show the market you’re listening and serious about selling. The motivated buyers will notice you and take a look.

Don’t want to be bothered during the holidays? List your property in January

There’s something about the beginning of a new year that galvanizes people. The motivation to buy could be due to year-end tax planning, with buyers seeing how much they owe and how owning a home could help. It could be because of New Year’s resolutions to finally stop spending money on rentals and invest in property.

Whatever the buyers’ motivation, for sellers it means one thing: Demand for homes can increase at a time when inventory is traditionally low. And that means if you’re ready to sell, you’ll have an even more “captive” audience during the holidays, all the way through January.

Get Your Home Sold With the best Advice

If you are thinking about putting your house on the market, talk to Nevado Team, we are experienced real estate agents. For professional advice, you can trust Nevado Team to stick with you during the busy holiday season and get your home sold at a great price.