The holiday season can be a good time to have a house for sale, due to a generally leaner market and unique selling points.
BY SARAH PETERS sarah.peters@latimes.com
Home sales drop during the holiday season, but the reduction in inventory “de-clutters” the market for serious buyers and sellers, Realtors said this week.
“The holidays are probably one of the best times to have your home on the market,” said Alison McCormick, a broker with Teles Properties in Newport Beach. “A lot of agents will pull homes off the market because clients think that no one is looking. But I always encourage them to keep it on … it’s always paid off in spades.”
While home sales typically dip in the winter months, the buyers and sellers who weather out the cold period can find certain benefits in a leaner market.
“During the holidays, you may not have a lot of showings, but the showings that you do have are typically very good,” McCormick said. “Typically, they are a cash buyer and are very serious about buying.”
One of the most widely-used selling tools by Realtors in any season is helping a buyer envision him or herself in their new home — the holidays open up a unique opportunity to play up this technique.
“People tend to decorate their homes to make them look very appealing during holiday season,” said Beth Peerce, president of the California Assn. of Realtors. “People celebrate different holidays and do different kinds of things and we consider that an asset.
“During the holidays, you may not have a lot of showings, but the showings that you do have are typically very good.”
Alison McCormick broker with Teles Properties in Newport Beach
“Someone walks in and sees themselves living there.”
Scents associated with certain holidays, such as cinnamon and evergreen, also make homes attractive to potential buyers, she explained.
However, the observance of holidays is widely varied and the presence of a manger or menorah may due little to lure a buyer who doesn’t observe Christmas or Chanukah, respectively.
Whether this is true or not — and Peerce didn’t think that decorations of any kind would pose a significant deterrent — the CAR president recommends that the homeowners do whatever they would normally.
Just get rid of the clutter, she stressed. The idea is for buyers to for see the home exactly as that: a home.
“You want to remind people why they want to live in that home,” Peerce said. “And I truly believe in the statement that there no place like home for the holidays.”
For places like Orange County, where weather is fair year-round, this winter excepted, buyers in the winter months tend to be in
See SALES, page C15
