List My Home During the Holidays?

A question every real estate broker receives in November and December each year is "Should I take my home off the market for a while?"

There are two approaches to the answer to this question:

A} If your home is priced at true current market value and is in great condition inside.  Then we would recommend that you continue to keep your home on the market.  Buyers that are in the market at the present time are serious buyers.  They know enough about the market to understand that the best deals are found at this time, or they must purchase a home due to relocation, etc.  However, they know they can find many homes out there with Seller's that are willing to settle on a price below market value.  Therefore it's the homes that are already priced below value that sell during this time.  If you decide to keep your property on the market duing these months, we would usually recommend a price reduction.

B}If your price is at the top or over market rate or if your home needs work done to the interior that you are deferring (whether its necessary repairs or updates) then we would recommend you take your home off the market until March 1st.  

Strategy B offers another advantage.  By taking your home off the market for at least 60 days, the MLS allows a Realtor to reset the days your property has been on the market.  The amount of time the home has been on the market is many times the first question Buyer's ask when considering to write an offer.  By resetting this time period back to zero when the most Buyers enter back into the market, a higher offer can sometimes be achieved.

In a future post we'll write about the pricing pyrmaid and why you get more for your home if it's priced correctly immediately when listed.