Tips with Team Gatlin on How to Embrace Winter Home-Selling Season
It's early winter and you’ve got plans to sell your home, waiting until spring seems like torture. Your house is already prepped, and you’re even eyeballing a new house you’d like to buy. So....why wait? Well, Team Gatlin is here to tell you that you don’t have to! Spring may be the "strongest home-selling season", but that doesn’t mean selling your home at any other time of year is impossible, even in the chilly winter months. To be honest, selling your home in the winter is getting easier in many parts of the U.S., and the south is no exception. As we mentioned in our last blog post, housing markets continue to struggle for enough inventory to meet buyer demand and prices continue to rise. Serious homebuyers are beginning to broaden their horizons and are choosing to shop throughout the year, not just during the warmer months.
New Year’s resolutions may motivate many homebuyers to get into the house-hunting groove after the first of the year. If the idea of marketing your home at the start of 2020 sparks a flame in you, reach out to Team Gatlin real estate agents now to be sure you’re making all the right preparations to draw those winter homebuyers to your property. This includes maintaining curb appeal to ensure you won’t discover any maintenance disasters during rain and inclement weather, such as a leak in the roof or frozen plumbing that causes pipes to burst.
Be mindful that it’s important to price your home realistically. The winter months aren’t a pristine time to test the market and see how high of an offer you can get. It makes more strategic sense to price it correctly and attract the right buyer looking for a home like yours. Depending on where you live, weather can also play a factor. For example, Florida benefits from a warm climate year-round, and Colorado's snowfall is typically followed by warmer days that melt everything, thereby making it a more friendly selling market. Certain Midwestern or New England cities that see commonplace snowstorms in winter may note that the housing market is more likely to “take a hit from the winter weather.” All in all though, tough weather doesn’t mean you can’t make a successful deal in the winter months. Here are a few reasons that Team Gatlin believes the winter home-selling season may be your best option!
1) Buyers are as just as serious as you! It takes a pretty dedicated individual to prepare your home and put it on the market when the weather is nippy and the winter holidays are just wrapping up – after all, it’s a busy time of year. The good news is that the buyers are seeing things the same way during winter! A dedicated buyer could either have no timeline at all or may want to tour dozens of homes while there are less people out there viewing. If other sellers are busy gearing up for spring showings this gives a winter seller an advantage. Take advantage of those early in the year buyers and get your house marketed while the looking is prime! #dedicatedbuyersandsellers
2) Believe it or not, buyers care less about days on market than you're led to believe! There may be fewer active buyers at this time of year, but if they are looking then more than likely their motivation for finding the right house means they won’t care as much about the superficial reasons that pause buyers during a more competitive selling season. Some buyers are put off during the peak selling seasons of spring and summer if they see a house doesn't have an offer after 50+ days on the market. Often they will assume something’s wrong with the house and write it off. Granted, 200 or so days on market may still be considered a red flag, but houses selling in winter realistically tend to stay on market a tad longer and shouldn’t put off the serious buyers. A recent study reported on realtor.com shows that the median days on the market for houses sold in February is 83 days vs. May which runs a median of 55 days. #marketdays
3) Spring is just around the corner! Don't panic if you can’t find a buyer during the winter months, spring is certain to bring plenty of avid homebuyers to the market. Continue to make sure the house stays staged for buyers and gleams bright as the weather warms up. People who haven’t seen your listing yet will definitely want to view all their options! #springiscoming
4) Listing in the winter means you’re not competing with as many buyers for YOUR next house. Generally speaking, you’re selling your house because you’re looking to buy another. This time of year means you will have the benefit of less competition for your ideal dream home when you’re not shopping during the hotter spring sales months like late March - May. #nocompetition
5) Want a more realistic sense of your listing price? Perhaps as you begin to prep your home to market this winter you see other homes nearby listed as well, more than likely they are priced in or slightly below recent sales as to attract the right buyers. Good advice would be to follow their lead and market your home at the price it’s worth based on recent sales of properties that are comparable. Be realistic during the winter home-selling season, it's not the season to get overly ambitious with pricing! #berealistic
Overall here's your tip list for winter-selling: #beadedicatedseller #knowyourmarketdays #springisaroundthebend #lesscompetitionwhenitscold #realisticmarketer
Happy listing, and let Team Gatlin help you make this a winter to remember for you! Contact us at (256) 424-5378 any time! Leading Edge Real Estate Group 1423 Huntsville Highway Suite B Fayetteville, TN 37334 Office (931) 433-4070