Question: Is it a good idea to sell a home during the holidays? Answered by Libby Guthrie

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Libby Guthrie with Keller Williams Realty in Northern California. And today I’m going to talk about selling your home during the holidays. And I’m going to give you a few suggestions and tips regarding that.

Sometimes I have sellers ask me, Libby, I really need to sell my house because I’m getting a job transfer or they’ve already bought another home and they want to take advantage, too, of this current market, which is a good seller’s market.

But they don’t want to be bothered during the holidays with people coming and going and looking at the home an appraiser coming in, inspectors coming in.

And so we talk about the pros and cons and some suggestions if they do decide to go ahead and put their home on the market during the holidays.

There are a few good things about putting your home on the market during the holidays. One of the good things is you have less competition. There’s not that many homes for sale during the holidays, so the buyers have less to choose from and may be able to choose your home because they cannot find any other home to satisfy their needs and wants.

The other good thing is that a lot of buyers are off during the holidays and they have time to go and look at homes, or if they are out there looking at homes during the holidays, they’re probably pretty serious buyers. They may need to buy a home as soon as possible. They’ve had a job transfer and they need to get settled in so they can get settled in during the holidays and, and not have to worry about schools and things like that until after the first part of the year.

And then one thing that sellers do ask me though, well Libby, what about my decorations? I, you know, we really have a lot of family get-togethers during the holidays and I like to put up my Christmas tree and wreaths and flags and things like that for the holidays in my yard. Decorations.

So one thing, if you are going to be putting your home on the market during the holidays, forego putting up those decorations until after the photographer has been there to take the pictures of your home. Because if for some reason it does not sell during the holidays and people are looking at the pictures online, they’ll see all these decorations, and they’ll think, well, this home might’ve been on the market quite a while because it’s still got a Christmas tree up in the living room and it’s already March or April.

So just consider that. Um, the other thing is to be flexible with your showings and, and make sure that you let the buyers into the home to see the home because they may not have that much time.

And there may just be in the area for a few days. Um, sometimes people will tell me, well, what if I’m decorating cookies and making pies and things like that? Well, that can be a good thing because that can make the house smell really good. And the other thing is the buyers coming through there, they can visualize the decorations that you’ve put up so that when they buy that home and next year they’re in the home, they know exactly where to place that Christmas tree.

So it’s a good thing to have some decorations there, but make sure they’re a little bit to the minimum because you don’t want to make it so that the buyers cannot walk through the home. Or go into a particular room because there’s just too much stuff there, it’s decorated.

So in the long run, selling a home during the holidays is a great time. And if you’re interested in selling your home during the holidays or any time, please feel free to give me a call. I’ll be glad to help. If you’re not in the Northern California area, I can introduce you to a great agent. All over the United States, I have connections.

So give me a call. My number is (925) 628-2436 and happy holidays.

End Transcript

Do you have questions about selling your home during the holidays? Leave your question in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them, or call me at 925-628-2436 and I’ll be glad to help!