negotiation process, and it’s often an all-cash deal that circumvents the sluggish lending process.

Since it’s the buyers who are on a time schedule, it flips things around and puts the sellers in position to negotiate a good price, Ward said.

But not all experts feel the holidays are a good time to have a home on the market, and some believe there are advantages to taking it off the market for the holidays.

“If you don’t have to sell between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, take your home off of the market,” writes About.com guide Elizabeth Weintraub, who has 30 years of real estate experience. She’s the broker-associate at Lyon Real Estate’s midtown Sacramento office.

One of Weintraub’s biggest arguments against having your home on the market right now is:

“Buyers will think you are desperate. You’re appealing to a much smaller inventory of buyers who have very specific needs that your home might not match.”

And there’s an advantage to removing your home from the market over the holidays, Weintraub argues, because “it can go back as a new listing in January, thereby drawing more traffic because it’s fresh.”

But for Ward, who has the “you have to be in it to win it” mindset, the chance to sell your home to an all-cash investor who may be willing to go a bit higher on price is reason enough to leave your home on the market over the holidays — or put it on the market if it isn’t already there.

“From a seller side, if your take your house off the market just over the holidays … you’re taking yourself off the market for these investors,” she said. “Don’t take yourself out of the game.”

Got an interesting real estate story to tell? Email djergler@gmail.com.