Top 10 Cheerful Reasons To List Your Home During The Holidays

Kyle Hiscock

Kyle Hiscock | Greater Rochester NY Real Estate | Pittsford NY Realtor at RE/MAX Realty Group

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Should I Sell My Home During The Holidays?

Top 10 Cheerful Reasons To List Your Home During The Holidays

Top 10 Cheerful Reasons To List Your Home During The Holidays

As we are quickly approaching the holiday season, one of the top frequently asked questions about selling a home is “should I sell my home during the holidays?”  Depending on who you discuss this topic with, you’re going to receive mixed opinions.

Some people will say you should absolutely not list your home during the holidays and should wait until after the new year.  Others will say that you should list your home during the holidays.

Before we dig into the top 10 cheerful reasons to list your home during the holidays, I always like to make it clear with sellers that in most situations, the spring is the best time to list your home.  This doesn’t mean that it is a complete waste of time to list your home during the holidays because there are some great reasons and advantages.

Below you’ll learn what the top 10 reasons to list your home during the holidays are.  Homeowners who are deciding between whether they should list their home during the holidays or if they should wait and prepare for the spring real estate market, must consider these 10 reasons first before deciding.

Motivated Buyers Shop All Year

The holiday season is filled with holiday parties, family gatherings, gift shopping, and a variety of other time consuming tasks.  The holiday season is often the reason why many buyers will discontinue their home search because they’re too busy with other things.

These kind of buyers are the same type of people who generally go to open houses.  Yes, I’m referring to your nosy neighbors or window shoppers who have zero intention of buying your home.

One of the top reasons to list your home during the holidays is that the quality of the potential buyer of your home improves greatly.  Motivated buyers will shop for homes all year, even if it’s the holiday season.  These serious buyers want to take advantage of lower interest rates rather than waiting and potentially being effected by an interest rate increase.

These are the type of buyers that you want walking through your home, bottom line!

Buyers Have More Time To Search & Shop For Homes

It’s common that people have more time off from their job during the holiday season.  This means that potential buyers have more time to search and shop for homes.

The number of people searching on my website for homes for sale in Rochester NY increases exponentially during the holiday season.  Imagine a motivated buyer gathering with their family for Thanksgiving and showing their loved ones homes they’re interest in to get their feedback and thoughts, because it does happen.  The internet has made searching for homes incredibly easy.

Not only do buyers spend more time searching online for homes during the holidays but because they have additional time off from work, they generally have more time to view homes in person.  The extra time that motivated buyers have to search and shop for homes is another excellent reason to list your home during the holidays.

Fewer Competitors During The Holidays

Fewer Competitors Is A Great Reason To List Your Home During The Holidays!

Fewer Competitors Is A Great Reason To List Your Home During The Holidays!

One of the top reasons why selling a home during the fall or winter months can be advantageous is because there are fewer competitors.  This means that many of your neighbors are waiting to list their home until after the holidays or maybe even until the spring.  It’s also not that uncommon for some homeowners to ask to have their home pulled off the market during the holidays.

Fewer homes for sale is a great reason why you may elect to list your home during the holidays.  This is especially true if your home is similar to many of the homes in your neighborhood.

For example, if your home is a traditional 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath center entrance colonial and many of your neighbors homes are the same, listing your home during the holidays is a smart idea.  On the other hand, if your selling a luxury home that is extremely unique and rare in your area, your competition is unlikely to be high at any time of the year and waiting until after the holidays maybe the best decision.

Homes Show Better During The Holidays

One exceptional tip for preparing for showings is to ensure that your home is clean, neat, and organized.  If you’re going to be hosting family during the holidays, there’s a good chance that you’ll be cleaning and organizing every inch of your home.

The holiday season is also a popular time for homeowners to bring out their inner chef and baker skills.  Cookies, pastries, and dinners are created during the holidays which means your home is going to smell amazing during showings.  The smell test cannot be overlooked when selling a home because foul odors are one of the most common ways to scare away a potential home buyer.

Buyers Are Emotional During The Holidays

The holidays are filled with love, joy, happiness, peace, and a slew of other emotions.  Another excellent reason to list your home during the holidays is that buyers emotions tend to run higher during the holidays.

Since this is a well known fact, there are endless opportunities for home sellers to play off a buyers emotions.  An excellent cheap staging tip is to use natural touches when staging of your home.

A couple great ideas for using natural touches are something as simple as a holiday wreath with pine cones from your backyard or decorating a Christmas tree with bright lights and ornaments.  These natural touches may strike a buyers emotions and have you reaping the benefits of a successful home sale during the holiday season.

More Relocation Buyers

The Holidays Are Popular For Relocation Buyers!

The Holidays Are Popular For Relocation Buyers!

The holiday season is a very popular time of the year when relocation buyers are thinking about or are preparing to move to a new city or state.  Many relocation buyers will need to be in their new city or state right after the new year begins.

Since January is traditionally when the largest number of corporate transfers occur, this is an excellent opportunity for you to target an audience of buyers that may not be as strong during other times of the year.  This alone is a great reason to list your home during the holidays and not wait until after the new year or the spring real estate market.

Smoother Transactions

The number of homes sold during the holiday season is fewer than the number of homes sold during the often hectic spring market.  Since there are fewer real estate transactions occurring during the holiday season, this means that the professionals who are involved in a real estate transaction aren’t juggling as many transactions.

There are many different professionals who are involved in a successful real estate closing.  This includes real estate agents, mortgage originators, home inspectors, attorneys, title companies, and several others.

There are a variety of reasons closings get delayed in real estate, one of them being a work overload.  Since all of these professionals have fewer transactions during the holidays, the chance they’re experiencing a work overload is less.  This means they’ll able to focus additional time and effort on your home sale during the holidays.  A smoother, and hopefully on time, transaction is another phenomenal reason to list your home during the holidays.

Competitive Edge For Your Purchase

If you’re going to be purchasing another home after selling your home, listing your home during the holidays can give you a competitive advantage when it comes time to buy your new home.  Selling and buying a home at the same time can be extremely frustrating, tricky, and unsuccessful at times.

If you need to sell your home before buying a new one, you’re considered a contingent home buyer.  Contingent home buyers leave themselves open to heartbreak if they were to lose their dream home to a buyer who doesn’t need to sell a property.  If you list your home during the holidays and successfully sell it, you’ll have a competitive edge since you won’t need to be contingent on the sale of your current home.

If your plan is to buy a home during the spring market, you need to understand that you’re likely going to be facing a sellers market.  Buying a home in a sellers market is very competitive and many homes for sale will receive multiple offers.

This past year during the spring market, homes listed for less than 24 hours were receiving 6-12 offers. Anytime there is this much competition, it’s almost a guarantee that a contingent buyer will be beat out by a buyer who doesn’t need to sell a home in order to buy a new one.

Showing Times Are More Convenient

There is nothing convenient about selling a home.  Selling a home means that you may have to leave your home several times throughout the day while people are walking through your home.  During the peak of the spring real estate market, this may mean leaving your home a dozen different times to accommodate showing requests.

Another popular reason to list your home during the holidays is that restricting showing times is not uncommon.  During the peak of the spring market, not accommodating showing requests is a great way to lose potential buyers because they can simply find another home to purchase since there is a greater supply of homes for sale.

During the holiday season, not accommodating a showing request because of a family gathering is easier for a buyer to accept and understand.  Since there are fewer homes for sale during the holidays, buyers are less likely to get upset if you cannot accommodate a showing because they simply will not have the abundance of options.

Top Real Estate Agents Are Up To The Task

To successfully sell a home, there are many stars that have to align.  Arguably the two most important factors in a successful home sale are that your home is priced properly and that your home is getting maximum exposure.

A great way to exponentially improve the chances of a successful home sale is to hire a top real estate agent.  Believe it or not, some real estate agents will “take it easy” during the holiday season.  This is not the case for top producing listing agents!

Since top real estate agents are actively working all year, another reason to list your home during the holidays is that you’ll have a better chance of hiring a top agent.  Certainly it does not mean that if you call an agent during the holidays and they agree to list your home that they are a top agent.

It’s extremely important to still make sure you take the proper steps in hiring a top real estate agent and understand the importance of how to interview a real estate agent when selling a home.

If an agent is steering you away from listing your home during the holiday season, you need to ask them what their reasoning is behind advising against listing your home.  On the other hand, an agent who tells you that the holiday season is the best time to list your home should raise a few red flags as well.

As one of the top real estate agents in Rochester NY, I always pride myself on explaining both the PROs and CONs to listing a home during the holidays.  It’s important that you have both the positives and negatives so that you can make an educated decision as to which is the best for your situation.

Final Thoughts

The above top 10 cheerful reasons to list your home during the holidays may be a surprise to many.  This is because there is a stigma that selling a home during the holidays is a terrible idea.

As you’re deciding whether to list your home during the holidays or not, you should evaluate which seems to be the best fit for you.  Consulting with a top real estate agent is a good idea but beware of the agents who are steering you one way or the other.

Other Helpful Resources For Selling Your Home During The Holidays


Are you thinking about selling your Rochester NY home during the holidays?  The above reasons should help you decide whether to sell during the holidays or to wait.  If you don’t have a top Realtor in Rochester yet, contact me so we can discuss your scenario and you can decide if it’s smart to list your home during the holidays or not!

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About the authors: The above article “Top 10 Cheerful Reasons To List Your Home During The Holidays” was provided by the Keith Hiscock Sold Team (Keith & Kyle Hiscock). With over 30 years combined experience, if you’re thinking of selling or buying, we’d love to share our knowledge and expertise.

We service the following Greater Rochester NY areas: Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield, Pittsford, Fairport, Brighton, Greece, Gates, Hilton, Brockport, Mendon, Henrietta, Perinton, Churchville, Scottsville, East Rochester, Rush, Honeoye Falls, Chili, and Victor NY.

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