Why the Winter Is an Ideal Time to Sell Your Home

Sellers want to know if they should sell their home now or wait until spring. I’m here to let you know why listing now is a much better option. 

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One of the most popular questions we get this time of year is whether sellers should wait until spring to sell or sell their home now. It is actually much better to list your home now than during the spring season, and here are the reasons why. 

There will be way more competition in the spring. It’s true that more houses sell during the spring, but that statistic won’t always work in your favor. For example, we had a client earlier this year wait to sell during the spring and six houses with the same floor plan popped up on the market. This decreased competition for their home drastically. 

The numbers really do indicate that it is better to sell during the wintertime. Over the course of the last three years in the San Fernando Valley, during the winter, there are about 2,400 to 2,700 total homes on the market. Compare that to 3,500 to 3,700 homes on the market during the summer months. That’s a huge difference in the amount of inventory and in turn, a huge difference in competition. 

It’s better to list your home now than during the spring.

Interest rates might also be higher in spring, which means fewer people will be able to afford your home. If the Fed raises interest rates, it is likely that trend will continue well into 2017. 

You will also get more serious buyers in the wintertime. Listing your home in the colder weather means avoiding the “open house crowd,” which consists of people strolling in to eat the free cookies and probably haven’t even gone through the pre-approval process yet. 

Finally, there are lots of job transfers happening at the very end and very beginning of the year. These people need to get into a home fast, and catering to that demographic is a smart move for the seller. 

If you have any further questions about selling your home this holiday season, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. Happy holidays!