Halloween is behind us. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa are before us. If you’re a homeowner tempted to take your house off the market during the holidays, hold off, and here’s why. Linda Kemp and her husband were transferred every couple of years before Thanksgiving season. Now she’s a realtor in Naperville, Ill., and says this about holiday house hunting. “It’s my experience, both personal and professional, that buyers who are looking at homes during this time of year are serious buyers indeed…one of my clients sold their home on New Year’s Eve with the buyers signing a contract right there on the spot.”
It’s true. Motivated home buyers and sellers don’t take a holiday vacation. Albeit inconvenient at times, sellers should open their doors to showings from late November through early January. Kathy Keating of Boulder, Colo., recommends that sellers ought to consider the numbers game. “The more people you get in the door, the better chance of selling your home.”
Real estate agents say that two types of buyers visit homes in the months of November and December — business executives scoping the area for relocation potential and visiting family members whose heartstrings are pulling them back to their hometown. As a seller, you’ve already done the work of getting the house up to snuff with all the holiday trimmings. Now go ahead and show it off.