List My Home During the Holidays
List My Home During the Holidays
Should I list my home during the holidays? It is a common question and I am asked this question often. My response is “Yes, you should list your home for sale during the holidays”.
Home sellers are hesitant to list their home for sale during the holidays because of holiday decorations, entertaining family and friends or just too dang much going on during December. All of these are valid excuses for NOT listing your home during the holidays.
Why answer YES to the “list my home during the holidays?” question
- Corporate transfer buyers are in town during December and make a buying decision based on inventory they can see while they are here. If you do not have your home listed for sale during the holidays, they will not see your home and can not buy your home. These corporate transfer buyers look at homes for 2 or 3 days, pick out a home to buy and often close in 30 days.
- Not everyone has a hectic holiday schedule. For some buyers this is a great opportunity to look at homes. They have some days off and nothing to do. I get a lot of calls to show homes between Christmas and New Years Day. I do not work on Christmas or New Years Day, but I am happy to show homes in between.
- Get a jump on the competition – there will be a rush for home sellers to put their homes on the market in January. This translates into a significant increase in competition. If you list your home in December you get a significant jump on the competition. Real estate is a “contact” sport and you have to play tough to be a success.
- Lots of home buyers shop the Internet during the holidays. After the Christmas goose or ham has been eaten and all the relatives shipped back home, home buyers pull out their ipads and laptops to look at homes for sale. Out Internet traffic goes through the roof during holidays as potential home buyers look at home photos, virtual tours and home descriptions on our website at englishteam.com The same this happens at Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia. Most homebuyers shop the Internet before they actually get in a car and tour homes for sale.
The negatives for listing a home for sale during the holidays can be minimized.
- Cut back on holiday decorations but keep the basics. Think pottery barn versus the Griswalds while decorating your home.
- Establish “no fly” zones for showings and communicate this to real estate agents when they call for a showing appointment. If you are hosting family Dec 24th through Dec 26th, just let agents know when they call for appointments that this time has been blocked out for showings. I often put this type information in the private remarks section of the FMLS listing. Private remarks can only be viewed by real estate agents. After reading this showing restriction the available times for showings are communicated to the buyer and they show before or after the restricted time.
- Go to a movie during scheduled real estate showings or go Christmas shopping or visit friends. It is a good time to get out of the house anyway, why not have an agent show your home while you are out having fun.
- My house is a mess and I don’t want to have a potential buyer see it this way. This may be the one time I make an exception to the rule of having a home neat and tidy for showings. If you are hosting family and friends, it is near impossible to have the home neat and tidy. Tell the showing agent they are welcome to show but you do not have time to clean up the house. They will understand – their home probably looks the same way.
Are you thinking about listing your Atlanta Georgia home for sale? Call or text Sally English 404-229-2995 for tips and advice. We specialize in homes and neighborhoods convenient to Emory University and The CDC. Tell Sally “I want to list my home during the holidays” and we can make it happen. EMAIL Sally English