During the holidays, many sellers withdraw their properties from the market and wait until January to re-list. Most often, it’s because of family visits and holiday celebrations. Let's face it – who wants to keep their house clean enough for buyers when you're in the midst of baking, wrapping presents and partying?  However in today’s market, having your home for sale during the winter holidays can give you a real competitive edge.

Serious Buyers. Only really serious buyers are looking for homes during the holidays.  Would you rather be attending holiday events and getting your shopping done, or driving around in the rain and cold looking at homes?  Buyers' dedication and commitment to the home buying process during this time makes them much more serious buyers than the summer tire-kickers. Most buyers start their search on the internet and will spend their holiday break surfing the web looking for homes. With more free time, buyers and their families will spend more time dreaming about what they will do in 2013. Why not have your home prominently featured on the Internet where they can discover it?

Less competition. With fewer listings, there is less competition for those serious buyers.  You'll lose this edge in January as more sellers trickle back into the market, slowly increasing to normal levels by Spring.

Moving up before prices increase.   We've hit the bottom of the housing crisis and are finally rebounding.   Given a 3% annual increase in the market, higher in some areas of Portland, a $250,000 house will gain $7,500 in value, while a $500,000 house will gain $15,000 in value.  Your leverage in buying up to the next level house is much higher in actual dollars.  Additionally, the cost of borrowing money has never been less – your move-up can be locked in at today's low interest rates.

Holiday decorations.  Give me a call to have my professional stager help you with both your holiday decorations and staging your home for sale at the same time. Buyers are emotional during the holidays. You can capitalize on their emotions by using high quality holiday decorations to showcase what your home has to offer, as well as let buyers experience the dream of living in your home.

Higher appraisal values.  Recent strong sales support the rising appraisal values of homes. With the market increase in sales of non-distressed homes, now is the best time to sell. The percentage of bank-owned and foreclosure homes has shrunk, giving appraisers more information on the sale of regular homes as they begin to increase in value for the first time in over five years.