Top 11 Reasons to List Your Home During the Holidays

Nov. 16, 2011 - PRLog -- Contrary to popular belief, the holidays are one of the best times to put your home on the market. In Sarasota and Manatee counties, more homes sold in December than in the following January or February, every year since December 2007. Serious buyers are home-shopping during the holidays, but they can’t buy your home if it’s not on the market!

As a real estate agent and broker since 1999 in Cleveland, Ohio, and on the Florida West Coast, I've experienced many home sales during the holidays, which we think of as the “Turkey to Champagne” season. Looking back, it all makes sense. It is perfectly logical that people buy and sell over the holidays. So I've put together my top 11 reasons to get your home on the market right now, over the holidays:

11. Homes show better when decorated for the holidays. The feeling of home is very attractive to buyers, and the holidays are especially evocative of many positive memories of "home."

10. Buyers are more emotional during the holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price. Many buyers want the right house, and getting the right house at a fair price is more important than getting the wrong house at a bargain price.

9. Buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than they do during a working week. Not everyone wants to wait in line on Black Friday. Many would rather surf the net looking at homes for sale.

8. Some people must buy before the end of the year for tax reasons. Many of the buyers are receiving bonuses at year-end, or have some other reason to conclude a purchase before the end of this year.

7. Even though your house will be on the market, you still have the opportunity to schedule showings around your holiday schedule. Your Realtor can coordinate showings to accommodate your plans. And you are not the only people who may have family in town for the holidays. Your neighbors may, too, and those visitors may just fall in love with the Florida West Coast and buy your home!

6. January is traditionally the month for employees to begin new jobs. Since transferees cannot wait until spring to buy, you need to be on the market during the holidays to capture that part of the buyer market. Many of those transferees will travel to our area over the holidays specifically to begin their search. If you wait until after the holidays to list your home, you’ve lost this important opportunity.

5. You can sell now for the right price and your Realtor can coordinate a delayed closing or extended occupancy while you shop for your next home. A delayed closing allows your buyers the benefit of time to get their home sold once they buy your home. This flexibility on your part is valuable to a buyer, and buyers pay for what they value.

4. By selling now, you have the opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when more houses will be on the market for less money. This allows you to sell high now and buy low later, knowing your home is already sold!

3. Since the supply will dramatically increase in January, there will be less demand for your particular home, and more competition to find that elusive buyer. Less demand in the spring means less money for you.

2. Serious buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the holidays, and less competition right now means more money for you. In Sarasota and Manatee counties, there have been fewer homes, in terms of total supply, on the market each December since 2007. Statistically, more homes sell each December, and fewer homes are on the market each December, which means there is a great probability that your home would sell if it were on the market!

And the Number One reason why you should get your home on the market during the holidays...

1. People who are looking for homes during the holidays are more serious buyers! Realtors working with buyers over the holidays are only working with serious buyers. And the Realtors working with serious buyers over the holidays are serious Realtors, and they will get the job done for you!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kevin Cahill is CEO/Team Leader of Keller Williams Realty Sarasota-Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Florida