s/o Selling House in Winter

[hopeful2012]

Our house has been on the market since July. We've since realized our broker was not a good fit for us and the area (for instance, she resisted our urge to reduce the price, even after the house hadn't sold or gotten any offers for quite awhile...)  and we changed brokers in October. 

After we changed brokers (and reduced price) we quickly got an offer, but the buyer walked away during inspection (from what we can tell, just due to a lack of commitment, not any issue found with the house). 

We have since moved out a couple weeks ago to our new house.

Is there any reason to take the house OFF the market for a bit in the winter to hopefully attract new buyers in the spring? Is this now a really really dead time  

[cjeanette]

I wouldn't take it off. People move in the winter for different reasons.

The way my realtor put it was that the number of prospective buyers decreases but so does the inventory. So the odds don't really change that much.

[Susie]

What's the climate like where you are?

We started house hunting in October in upstate NY (a few years ago). We hunted through the winter, but half-heartedly. Inventory was low, especially around the holidays. We took time off because it just got tiresome and wasn't productive. Even when we found properties we were interested in, I wasn't buying something with a snow-covered roof that I couldn't inspect, and I also was a lot more interested in buying something that I could see the yard of. We made one offer in January that we eventually walked away from due to wet basement issues. After going to see yet another unoccupied house that we had to BYO snow shovel just to get inside, we gave up until March ish, when things warmed up (both literally and in the market). We offered on several houses in March to May (we lost several in multiple offer contests), and went under contract in May.

As a seller, the up side to listing over winter is that some people NEED to move then, and your house has less competition then. On the down side, there are fewer buyers, and they'll probably try to lowball you, since why not, it's not like you likely have a higher offer waiting in the wings. Plus you run up your number of DOM. If you do list, make sure you have a snow removal plan. Buyer who have to shovel their way in aren't likely to be favorably impressed!

[1confused1]

We put our house on the market in winter and had no problem selling.

[redredwine]

Prospective buyer here...keep it on!! I think we're starting look more now BECAUSE it's winter, lol! We know how crazy it can get during the summer and the market we're looking in is already competitive, so we figure it helps us.

THough, I suppose form a sellers POV, they can ge more competitive offers during summer but there's a higher inventory. Depends on how much you want to walk away with from the sale, I guess!

[imojoebunny]

I have sold a house in January that didn't sell from August-December. Yes, fewer people are moving, but fewer homes are on the market. Depending on your neighborhood, you may also have people who don't have school age kids, so are not tied to that cycle.

I would leave it on the market.

[mlt]

We are actively looking this winter, hoping that less competition will help us. I would leave it on the market.

[krisim]

We are putting our house on the market next month. Our realtor said that sometimes the market heats up in December around the holidays--we are hoping that this is the case for us!

[hopeful2012]

We are in the midwest.

[hopeful2012]

Nov 20, 2014 17:20:05 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

I have sold a house in January that didn't sell from August-December. Yes, fewer people are moving, but fewer homes are on the market. Depending on your neighborhood, you may also have people who don't have school age kids, so are not tied to that cycle.

I would leave it on the market.

Our house would be ideal for a couple without kids or empty-nesters or almost empty-nesters would grown kids.... 

[pattieice]

I bought a house in January and my BFF is buying one next month. But we live in the South, so weather isn't a real issue.

[awkwardpenguin]

I'm not sure - it seems like it can't hurt to keep it on the market, but you might get lower offers than at a better time of year. We're looking for homes right now and inventory is relatively low, with a lot of asking prices just reduced. It seems like a better time of year to be a buyer than a seller.

[joenali]

We are house hunting now!

[regina22]

If you do end up taking a break for the holidays, make sure it is back on the market the week after super bowl Sunday. That's really the kickoff for "spring" in the real estate game....

[keweenawlove]

Nov 20, 2014 23:41:16 GMT -5 regina22 said:

If you do end up taking a break for the holidays, make sure it is back on the market the week after super bowl Sunday. That's really the kickoff for "spring" in the real estate game....

We looked at the house we ended up buying on Super Bowl Sunday

[gummy]

We attempted to sell our house last fall/winter. Our realtor told us to take it off on Thanksgiving and not even think about putting it back on until after Superbowl Sunday. This was in MN where pretty much no one buys houses during that time. We did get a couple offers but they were low and disappointing. We were not in a hurry either.

We put it on the week after Superbowl Sunday and we had 3 offers. All just at or above asking! Totally worth the wait for us.

ETA: Also if you take it off and put it back on it looks like a new listing.  Otherwise buyers see it's been on the market for X amount of days and get suspicious at why.  Or at the very least want to low ball you because they think you'll take anything at that point.

[ginkgoleaf]

I would take it off for a week or so and then put it back on so it looks like a new listing. We've bought both our houses in the winter.

[sunshine239]

Thanks for all the advice - since we are in midwest the snow/weather is definitely a consideration... what seems like the best time to take it off? I was thinking that we take it off right before Christmas (with the assumption probably no one is looking at houses the week of Christmas/New Years (?)
and put it back on a few weeks later in January? Or do some people actually house shop around those holidays, and we should leave it on for December and take it off for a couple weeks in January? Definitely want to put it back on by February (superbowl sunday is 2/1) because I think a lot of people start looking then so that they can move in the spring...

[joenali]

Nov 21, 2014 9:21:57 GMT -5 sunshine239 said:

Thanks for all the advice - since we are in midwest the snow/weather is definitely a consideration... what seems like the best time to take it off? I was thinking that we take it off right before Christmas (with the assumption probably no one is looking at houses the week of Christmas/New Years (?)
and put it back on a few weeks later in January? Or do some people actually house shop around those holidays, and we should leave it on for December and take it off for a couple weeks in January? Definitely want to put it back on by February (superbowl sunday is 2/1) because I think a lot of people start looking then so that they can move in the spring...

We have two weeks off for winter break. We will be house hunting around Christmas time. We do realize though that there isn't much out there right now. We probably see 1-5 houses a week right now.

[joenali]

Nov 21, 2014 9:09:34 GMT -5 ginkgoleaf said:

I would take it off for a week or so and then put it back on so it looks like a new listing. We've bought both our houses in the winter.

?? You can tell on sites like Redfin that's house was delisted and when. You can tell when houses are not new listings. And then as a buyer it makes you wonder why it was delisted.

[sa]

We put our house on the market in January at our realtor's suggestion. She said there are always buyers, even though it is a slower season. I thought we should have waited a bit.

The year it went on the market it was one of the snowiest winters and we had barely any interest until a couple months later when the snow melted and the weather wasn't as brutal.

[soozy87]

We bought our house in the winter in the Midwest. I would leave it on.

[WOT?*]

Mine in Cleveland was listed at Halloween and sold before Thanksgiving.

[sydney02]

We were going to try to get our house on the market before Christmas but we just aren't ready yet. We have to replace the kitchen counter and backsplash and we just won't have the money until February.

However while I was researching whether to list before Christmas and keep it on during the winter I was finding upsides and downsides.

My agent said that typically holidays/winter are a slow time. But one year she did 5 closings between Christmas and New Year's. Less competition from other houses, plus winter buyers are more serious buyers.

The downside, some people will start looking in the winter just to get an idea of the market but they'll say they want to "Wait until spring to see what else comes on the market." And I can relate because that's what we did. Why commit to a house in February when you know there is likely to be 10 more coming on the market in March? The other downside is that no offers = your days on the market counter going up.
Here, people will see a house has been on the market for a few months and immediately think there's something wrong with it.

Ultimately I think it's worth it to keep the house on the market in the winter. Had we been ready I would have listed our house.
Selling is stressful and I'm not looking forward to it at all.

[justjen]

We closed on our house 1/27, FWIW.