Post & Poll: Should I List My Property During the Holidays?

This column is written by Marcus Correll, the Marketing Coordinator at RLAH Real Estate. He is not a licensed agent, nor intends to be portrayed as such, but he is entrenched in the industry helping approximately 200 agents with their marketing.

Every year I hear the friendly debates in our offices amongst the agents and sometimes with their clients on whether the holidays are a good time to list a property.

After some research, I found that there are dozens of articles conflicting with each other to best serve their own sales and brokerage interests. While we won’t try to sway you one way or the other, we thought we’d share the pros and cons along with some tips should you decide that now is the best time for you to list.

Cons of Listing Your Home During the Holidays:

• Many people out of town or focused on holidays
• Winter is cold and dark, meaning nighttime showings and lack of landscape appeal
• Those “Holiday” days/weekends add on to the property’s “days on market”
• Making time/keeping home clean for showings is difficult if you’re hosting gatherings
• The different parties involved to facilitate a real estate transaction can be “out of office”
• Animals growing in their winter coats are more likely to shed
• Boxes of presents, wrapping paper and other gift items are often hard to hide
• Contractors and condo boards could be difficult to reach for questions
• Some buyers biases and prejudices could infringe on their decision with overly religious decorations

Pros of Listing Your Home During the Holidays

• Holiday buyers are particularly serious, committed and focused
• Executive transferees have more free time to shop for a home during the holiday season than at any other time of the year
• There are fewer homes available, therefore supply and demand works in your favor
• Lifestyle-oriented homes can be seasonally radiant during the decorative holiday period
• The holiday season is a period of unmatched consumer confidence and retail frenzy
• Interest rates are relatively low for now
• com claims that their busiest days of home searches come immediately after holidays
• End-of-year tax breaks (Mortgage rates, real estate taxes & PMI premiums)
• The holidays evoke more emotion and the right emotions could lead to an offer
• If selling now, you could have the chance to be a non-contingent buyer during the Spring

Tips if You Decide to Sell During the Holidays:

• Consider taking a mini vacation to get away from the house for tours
• Keep decorations simple: no giant Christmas tree or over-decorating the exterior with a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation amount of lights.
• Up the cozy factor: start/turn on the fire, light a holiday scented candle, play light holiday music and have cookies or cider for guests.
• Have an exterior light on since winter gets darker faster.
• Shovel exterior sidewalks, driveways and stairs thoroughly and salt to keep walkway safe.
• Remove/hide any trash that may have piled up and not taken away yet.

So after seeing both sides of the coin on this timeless debate… Answer the poll below, and let us know about your experience in the comments!