Happy Home-selling Holidays

The holiday season can be an opportune time to sell. For one thing, there are usually fewer other homes on the market. Help your clients take advantage of this unique opportunity. 

You might suspect that the market slows down during the holiday season, but it actually offers unique opportunities to sellers, buyers and Real Estate Professionals who represent their interests. Buyers and sellers who are active during the holiday season are equally motivated to make the sale—and they face less competition.

Track the Traffic

A Realtor.com study reveals some interesting figures in real estate web traffic during the holiday season:

• Although traffic is much slower on the actual holiday, by the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it is back to business as usual.
• While December 24 is the slowest date for real estate traffic, December 28 is the busiest day of the entire year.
• There is also a surge of activity on New Year’s Day.

There are a lot of reasons motivated buyers act during the holiday season, but most lead to the lack of commitments. While the holidays are busy, there’s no school or work to worry about, making the holidays a great time to search for their dream home.

Overall, the spring market typically boasts the best combination of inventory and value, but consider that buyers who are serious enough to attend a holiday open house—and sellers who are willing to host one—are likely to pay off.

Set the Stage

If you’re showing a home during the holidays, keep appropriate staging in mind. Of course, potential buyers don’t need to be distracted by the homeowner’s holiday decorations. But here are some tips that can help create appeal that sells.

1. Downplay the décor—buyers need to be able to see themselves in the home. They need to be allowed to envision their decorations in that space. Keep it minimal, and remove a piece at a time until it feels right.
2. Trim the tree—in line with keeping things simple, if the homeowner insists on trimming a tree, make sure it is simple and clean. Try white lights and standard one-color ornaments.
3. Hide the presents—families with children might come through. Don’t tempt the tots: keep the presents packed away until Christmas Day.
4. Skip the stockings—keep the mantel décor-free.

Remind sellers that more décor equals more distractions. The more distractions buyers encounter, the less of the home they’ll see. Put away the holiday collections and put out some fresh-baked cookies and refreshments. This way, they’ll linger longer.

Get to Work

There is a lot you can do during the holiday season to keep your sales going. First, be reliable: make yourself available and go above and beyond. You can help ease your clients’ stress and give them more time to enjoy the holiday season.

Understand that there are a lot of ways to view a home. Encourage your sellers to consider the staging opportunities above, but also give buyers the ability to avoid the winter chill and view the listings online with photos and even a video tour.

An AHS® Home Warranty gives your sellers the confidence and comfort of knowing that they can  enjoy the holidays and helps alleviate the hassle or expense of unexpected covered household repairs while their home is on the market.

SOURCES:

http://www.point2homes.com/agent-websites/blog/2015/08/19/4-back-to-school-marketing-ideas-for-agents/
http://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/back-to-school-home-search-tips/