Winter leftover open houses
Although every year is a little different, there are general patterns for the real estate year. In temperate areas, both supply and demand are at their lowest in December and January. (It is different in areas that don’t have winters.) Here in the Boston area, my clientele changes after Thanksgiving. Generally demand is down because buyers are turned off by the choices. They also have better things to do with holidays and football season. It is harder to get around if it is snowy, some prefer to stay home (true last year, but not this year, yet.)
The new people coming in are one of three types of buyers:
People who are planning ahead for next spring.
Bargain hunters who are looking for a project house.
People with a compelling need to buy (like pregnancy or a strong displeasure with their current school district.)
These are added to clients who are still looking since this autumn.
Many of the properties for sale were on the market during the autumn, or even longer. If a house doesn’t sell in the high-demand areas that I work in, there is either something wrong with the house or something wrong with the marketing.
What kind of houses are sitting on the market?
Houses with location problems: near highways, abutting gas stations, on busy streets, and such.
Houses with condition problems:
1. Project houses. There are project houses that would be a good challenge. There are money pits. If the house looks like it will be a money pit, it is still on the market.
2. Nothing special, in-need-of-work houses. If the house will be nothing special when it is rehabbed, it may find itself in the leftover pile. Buyers I am meeting during the recession want to put effort into special houses, but are unwilling to bring boring houses back from the dead.
Houses with size or flow issues: Places that are just too small or are big, sprawling and weird may end up in the leftover pile. If buyers can’t imagine living there, they vote with their feet.
Houses with marketing problems:
Marketing errors include overpricing, bad descriptions, bad pictures, disagreeable sellers or agents.
The thing that is most easy to change is the marketing condition. As a buyer’s agent, I look for the properties that weren’t marketed well. This time of year, I may find something that my clients overlook. I am staring at a lot of badly written listing sheets and bad pictures these days…
The new listings that come on the market between Thanksgiving and Super Bowl Sunday generally have sellers with a compelling need to sell now. Sellers who start selling in December or January are interested in selling; it is an inconvenient time to test the market.
Winter is not a pleasant time to be selling a house one lives in. Let’s face it, few people think leaving the house for an open house on a Sunday afternoon is fun; even fewer think it is fun in the middle of the winter. Snow complicates showings. A lot of heat is wasted during open houses.
This week, I will be writing about what to look for in the winter leftover sales. What are you seeing?
