Why selling your house this Holiday Season might be a good idea

Within the real estate industry, it’s fairly common knowledge that the period between Thanksgiving and New Years day is perhaps the slowest time of year for home sales. The weather turns sour, everybody is traveling, and uprooting your life during the festivities can be nearly impossible when your family is counting on you to host. But depending on your outlook, you can make winter the perfect season for your sale! 

Serious Buyers

During the summer, lots of people window shop for potential moves. The weather is warm, daylight is plentiful, and kids are in transition between school years. But while buyers may be plentiful, motivations aren’t necessarily high. 

The winter provides an exception. Buyers in winter are typically serious. By the time they get home from work, it’s usually dark and cold. Poor weather for house shopping. That leaves the option of either hunting in less than ideal circumstances, or giving up weekends or vacation time to conduct your search. The result is that when a buyer takes the time to tour your home, it usually means they have some serious interest. If you are lucky enough to hook someone on your home’s potential during this time, the likelihood is that you’ll have a successful sale. 

Less Competition

Most seller’s view the holiday season as a difficult time to sell, and therefore, fewer sellers tend to list their homes in November and December. That creates a unique opportunity in today’s real estate landscape to avoid some of the competition. 

When there are fewer homes for sale on the market, each individual listing gets more visibility, and you are far more likely to attract potential buyers to take a tour. 

Improving Your Odds of Selling

Weather woes

In Jacksonville, we’re lucky enough to experience mild winters by comparison to most of the country –  but that doesn’t make them pleasant. It’s wet here, incredibly wet, and when you combine that inherent moisture with nearly freezing weather, the result is a cold that sticks to your bones. 

The problem? Our brains are wired to associate sensory information with experiences. If you are wet, cold, and miserable while house shopping, you are more likely to have a miserable feeling about a house you tour. The same is true for buyers looking at your home. But that also leaves an opening. 

For most of us, there’s nothing better than walking out of the cold and into someplace dry and warm. This winter season, if you are looking to sell, that’s your queue. Crank up the heat and ensure that the inside is dry and inviting. Make it a sanctuary from the weather outside, and your buyers will begin to associate that relief and comfort with walking in the front door. 

Smells like the season

There’s an interesting association between smell and memory thanks to the olfactory gland’s position within the brain. How something smells has a huge impact on how we remember the experience. And that’s an opportunity for sellers. 

When trying to market a house for sale, you should always ensure it smells nice, or at the very least neutral. Scoop litter boxes and ensure pet danders aren’t present, give your carpets a quick cleaning, and give your fabrics a quick spraydown – these are just a few ways you can avoid a malicious odor ruining your seller’s experience. But you can also ensure a good odor enhances their experience. And the holidays are full of wonderfully memorable smells. 

Lighting a fall or winter scented candle prior to a showing can help set the mood and tease buyers with the idea of a cozy place to settle in for the holidays. Baking bread, or even a pie can really leave an impression – just be careful not to overdo it. Heavy scents can overpower an experience, or even make your buyer uncomfortable if they are particularly sensitive. 

Lastly, don’t forget the tree. If you celebrate Christmas, a live Christmas tree can add lovely natural winter scent to your home. Pine and Fir are both mild and heavily associated with winter festivities. 

Decorate with care

We always recommend staging a home if you want to get the most out of your sale, but we understand that it’s not possible for everyone, especially if you are still living there. The holidays present some additional challenges, as many families decorate for the season. Holiday decorations are often gaudy, bright, and bold. That distracts from the subtle nuances that make your home special, and can leave a space feeling exceptionally cluttered. 

But it is possible to decorate in a way that enhances your home’s features, rather than distracting from them. Using less is often more, and a few strings of warm lights, and extra throw blankets can turn a regular Jacksonville living room into a comfortable winter palace. 

The same goes for the exterior. Stay away from large blow-up snowmen and bright flashing colored lights. Instead opt for traditional white or blue lighting, and subtle decorations that invoke warmth and calm. Help your buyer feel like they would feel at home there this holiday or next. 

 

Be available

One thing we know from experience is that an available house is far more likely to sell than one that’s difficult to get inside. If you have to sell this holiday season, ensure that you don’t severely limit your showing windows. This can be difficult around holiday parties and family gatherings, but it’s important to remember that every walk-through is a potential sale. 

Pets are another consideration. If you have dogs, ensure that they are safely crated or kenneled whenever prospective buyers come to view your home. Leaving a room locked off because of your pets hurts a buyer’s ability to visualize the home, and makes them worry about what damage the pets may have caused – even though we know your animal is an angel. 

Being available also means ensuring your house always looks its best. Even when you aren’t home. A clean kitchen, made beds, and tidy living spaces go a long way. 

It’s also imperative to keep your yard maintained and manicured. It’s easy to let the grass grow when it’s cold, since the progress is so slow. But keeping grass trimmed, edges neat, and beds free of fallen leaves provides a welcoming first impression. 

Potential Issues

Lower Prices

December tends to be the month with the lowest sale prices for homes out of the year. That leaves many buyers thinking that they can negotiate a great deal, and you may find it difficult to get strong offers near your asking price. As of November 2024, the average sale to list ratio, the difference between asking price and the final sales price, has fallen to 93.8%. 

Higher Days on Market

There’s plenty of data to back up the fact that the longer a home stays on the market, the less likely it is to sell. And if you are selling during the holidays, you should be prepared for the lengthy sale. As of November 2024 the average number of days a home in the NEFMLS stayed on the market was 73.8, a huge jump from 57.6 in July. 

A few other considerations

It’s also important to remember that just because you find a buyer during the holidays, it doesn’t mean you have to close your sale during the holiday season. It’s not unrealistic for sales to take more than a month to close. Having a serious discussion with your realtor and your buyer about their needs and expectations can help ensure everybody wins, or atleast offer some good negotiating space. 

Ultimately, the key to selling well in the winter is the same as selling well any other time of the year. Strategy. Ensuring you make a good effort to present and position your home, or hiring a good agent who will do it for you, makes all the difference in ensuring you make top dollar. 

About Duval Home Buyers

This season, if you need to sell, but don’t have the energy, time, or resources to take the necessary steps, we can help ensure you’re still successful. Our cash buying program allows us to purchase homes in Jacksonville directly, without the need for repairs, cleaning, or anything else. We’ll take it exactly as-is, you take what you want and leave the rest to us. It’s the easiest way to sell your home this year – and it’s entirely local. Give us a call to get started.