Facing housing s winter chill: Pros and cons of listing your home after Thanksgiving
By Jerry Kronenberg
Friday, November 24, 2006 - Updated: 06:05 AM EST
T
oday marks the start of the holiday shopping season, but it s also the end of the fall real estate season - leaving would-be sellers like Fran Adams in a bind.
The quandary: Whether to leave unsold properties on the market all winter, or pull up For Sale signs and start again next spring.
It s a tough question, said Adams, a real estate agent who s trying to sell a $419,000 West Roxbury Colonial that he and his relatives inherited this summer. The longer a property sits unsold, the greater the chance a buyer will offer less. But if you take the place off of the market, there s always the risk that you ll miss the buyer - the person who was looking for exactly what you re selling.
With the Bay State housing market in a funk, thousands of would-be sellers face Adams dilemma this post-Thanksgiving weekend.
According to the MLS Property Information Network, there are currently 44,817 unsold houses and condos on the Massachusetts market - up 15 percent from this time last year.
Unfortunately for would-be sellers, the market is entering the year s slowest period.
Only about 19.5 percent of properties sold last year went under agreement in December, January and February, vs. some 31.8 percent in the far-stronger March-through-May period.
Historically, few people are out looking for houses during holidays, said Adams, a broker with Boston s MCM Properties. Whether it s Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year s or a vacation, many people want to be somewhere else.
Experts say house hunters often decide to focus on gift shopping, avoid winter driving and see properties when snow isn t covering up yards.
As for sellers, few want to keep homes sparkling clean during the holidays - and often figure they ll get a better price in spring anyway.
Agents add that keeping a house on the market all winter long can make a property look defective or the seller seem desperate.
That can attract low-ball bidders - not just in winter, but also the next spring.
After all, the MLS tracks how many days every property in its database has been on the market.
Leave a house on the MLS all fall and winter and its time-on-market rating can grow to 180 days or more by springtime.
On the other hand, taking a home off of the market has one obvious downside: You might miss out on a sale.
People who look at homes over Christmas are highly motivated people, said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. If they weren t, they wouldn t be out looking. So, winter and the holidays can be great times to make deals.
Still, Adams recently decided to take his home off of the market for the winter if a buyer doesn t emerge by month s end.
We don t need to unload the house right away, so we re willing to wait until spring and hope to get the right price, he said.
Facing housing s winter chill: Pros and cons of listing your home after Thanksgiving
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But the broker admits sellers in other situations might act differently.
If someone is really, really determined to sell, they might just continue to list the home and hope there s someone out there who s interested in that particular type of property, Adams said.
That s exactly what David Reznikow is doing.
A 34-year-old who recently moved in with his fiancee, Reznikow intends to keep his $289,000 one-bedroom Beacon Hill condo up for sale as long as it takes.
With a tenant paying enough rent to cover most of the unit s mortgage, Reznikow figures there s no harm in leaving the condo listed on the MLS.
We re going to just keep the place on the market and see if we get some bites within our target price range, he said.
Reznikow s broker, John Ford of Boston s Ford Realty, thinks he can find a buyer for the condo by year s end.
Ford figures a sub-$300,000 unit - a rarity on Beacon Hill - will attract either a first-time home buyer or an investor seeking to purchase property by Dec. 31 for tax reasons.
This time of year, if people show up to look at a house, they re usually very serious buyers, Ford said.
Winter tips
If you decide to have your house on the market through the winter, experts recommend you:
Keep the place festive. Feel free to use Christmas trees and the like during the holiday season.
Offer a spring touch. Fresh flowers can brighten up a place in dreary winter weather.
Maximize light. Make sure all windows are clean and all shades open, so as to allow in as much light as possible.
Tout the landscaping. If your home has a nice yard, provide photographs of what the landscaping looks like during spring or summer. That way, house hunters who show up on snowy days can get a feel for what they re missing.
De-clutter. Keeping a place neat and clean is especially important in winter, when weak sunlight can make even the nicest home look forbidding.
These are generally good rules to follow all year round, Ford said. But they re even more important in winter, because that s when it s darker and gloomier out.
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