Columbia SC Home Selling Strategies During Winter

Selling your home in winter can be one of the most successful Columbia SC home selling strategies you can employ. Recent data provided by Redfin confirms listing your home during the winter can actually mean a faster sale and a higher price. One main reason is there are fewer homes on the market during the winter months, because most sellers wait until the more popular spring and summer months to list.

Let's take a look at the Redfin data and see how it supports one of the best Columbia SC home selling strategies that can be utilized.

The Redfin information includes the percentage of homes that sell higher than the initial asking price and go under contract within the first 30 days. Interestingly, the findings show a higher percentage of offers above the asking price occur in winter than summer and fall. In addition, they are competitive with the more traditional spring home purchases. Furthermore, homes that sell in the winter don't stay on the market as long as homes in the summer and fall. A total of 46.2% don't last 30 days on the market, while only 23.7% of U.S. homes for sale are on the market during the winter months. This compares to 32.6% of homes for sale in the spring and 26.7% of homes for sale in the fall.

Conventional wisdom has always pushed the idea that winter was not a good time to list your home. However, that's not always the case. While there may be fewer homebuyers looking during that time of year, the ones that are in the market are serious. In addition, buyers looking in the winter often need to move, so they are usually less likely to make unrealistic offers and typically want to close the sale as quickly as possible. These two characteristics are attractive for any home seller.

As part of the Columbia SC home selling strategies employed by savvy sellers, winter or off-season purchasing can be advantageous. Since home shoppers may be fewer in the winter, homes on the market can often sit unsold longer. This makes for motivated sellers, which is good for a serious buyer.

While going against the grain in trying to sell a home in the winter is seen as a potentially good idea, it's not a no-brainer. There still are challenges that need to be overcome. One real estate professional shared her view on including winter selling among Columbia SC home selling strategies: "There are pros and cons to selling a home in the winter. There does tend to be less competition around the holidays, but it could work to the seller's advantage in that their property may have more interest than when the market is more saturated with other homes."

Another advantage in selling a home during the winter is that real estate agents usually have more time to give their clients, and may be more dedicated to selling a property than when they're consumed with having a number of listings competing for their attention.

As far as one of the best months to list your home, some experts say early January is key. The reason? Many sellers target the spring market as their starting period and plan accordingly. Buyers, however, seem to be much more ready and responsive to looking at home options well before the start of spring. As such, mid-January and early February listings seem to perform very well.

So, here's the proverbial bottom line when it comes to employing Columbia SC home selling strategies that include listing your home during the winter. If you need to sell your home in the winter don't let the cold temperatures prevent you from doing so. The perception may be that winter is a bad time to buy or sell a home but, of course, that is dependent upon where you live and how severe the winter weather is. In parts of the country that have milder winters or breaks in winter storm activity, listing your home then could be a smart move and a successful one.

An experienced real estate professional added this important caveat,”For most areas, although properties may not look as green and appealing as other times of year, that's not the whole picture. For both buyers and sellers, the competition is usually quite diminished, which can certainly work to your advantage. For buyers, less competition means they have a greater chance of getting the home they want without getting into a bidding war.”

As usual, the decision to sell your home comes down to your own personal choice. We recommend working with an experienced real estate agent who can guide you in the right direction should you choose to list your home in the winter. Providing the home buying market with winter inventory may just mean the difference between reaching a relatively captive audience and getting lost in the shuffle as other properties come on line in the more popular spring months. As a seller, you should ask yourself this question: “Am I better off showing my home to a smaller, more serious group of potential buyers during the winter when they are desirous of purchasing, or during the spring when both the supply of competitive homes as well as the demand of more buyers make for a more hectic marketplace?”

See more articles pertaining to Columbia SC home selling strategies in the two sections of articles on Columbia SC Home Selling Tips and Columbia SC Homes for Sale just below Columbia SC Real Estate Categories in the column to your right.

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