As the colder months settle in and we break out our cold-weather clothing, you may find that your hopes to sell your home in the coming weeks have been dashed. While it’s not the easiest season for home sales, it doesn’t have to be impossible. Below are the top seven reasons winter home sales are tough and how to combat them.
1. Vacationing Buyers
As the holiday season begins to ramp up, it can become more difficult to find buyers available to view your property or contact them once they’ve had a tour. Family trips, skiing adventures, and general winter travel can all make it hard to keep up with potential buyers. Contacting a possible buyer while they are on vacation can make you seem like a desperate seller, which isn’t great for your image going into negotiations.
The Solution
If you’re finding it tough to connect with individual buyers, consider selling not to an individual but to a company that buys houses in Baltimore. Unlike vacationing individuals, these companies operate year-round, so you’ll always have someone available to close the deal.
2. Seasonal Circumstances
In the winter months, there are changes in the weather that aren’t always pleasant, especially when you are trying to sell an older home. Heavy rain, cold temperatures, and blustery winds can all show through in homes that have not been well maintained or are just making their way up in age.
Potential buyers touring your home in the winter will have an easier time spotting roof leaks, cold drafts, poor insulation, and other weatherproofing concerns. These problem areas can cause them to negotiate the price of your home down or abandon the property altogether. In other months, these potential issues would not be as noticeable, but the harsh winter months prove to be a challenge for sellers in the real estate market.
The Solution
If you need your property sold quickly during the colder months and don’t want to wait until a season when these issues are less noticeable, selling your home to as-is home buyers in Baltimore may help you sell quickly without the need for costly repairs to address the weatherproofing in your house.
3. Shorter Days
As unbelievable as it may sound, decreasing daylight can be a difficult challenge for home sales in the winter months. With fewer sunny hours, people are typically less likely to want to go out for showings and walkthroughs on properties.
If the availability of natural light is a major selling point in your home, it can be more difficult to showcase that in the chillier and darker months.
The Solution
Schedule viewings during optimum daylight hours and consider offering virtual tours to accommodate buyers who can’t make it during the day.
4. Bank Holidays
While we love a day off of work, it can be frustrating to have the banks closed so often during the holidays when trying to sell your home. Waiting for brokers, banks, and lenders to approve home sales is already frustrating enough and can take a long time, but add in the frequent bank holidays that come with the winter season, and patience can run thin.
The Solution
To avoid waiting on banks and lenders to approve buyers and sellers, you can choose to sell to cash buyers in Baltimore. They do not need to rely on third-party approval for the sale to go through. They make an offer, you reach a deal, and the money is in your hands in a matter of a week without needing to wait on the lenders or work around bank holidays. Now, you can enjoy your day off of work without pacing by the phone, waiting for your seller’s approval to come through.
5. Busier Schedules
This time of year can be hectic. Between holiday parties, school events, and family arriving in town, scheduling times to speak with your buyer or arrange viewings and walkthroughs can be difficult. Work can also add to the stress as you must meet specific goals and criteria before the calendar year runs out.
The Solution
Be flexible. Consider scheduling multiple open house windows or prioritizing buyers who show genuine interest. By working around their schedules, you can keep the ball rolling.
6. Expensive Months
Many people are hesitant to go house shopping during the holiday season because it is already an expensive time of year. Holiday gift shopping, plane tickets, and special events add up over the next few months, causing buyers to pinch their pennies and wait to pull the trigger on a new home.
The Solution
Focus on buyers who aren’t feeling the holiday pinch. While individual buyers may hold back, residential real estate investors aren’t necessarily budgeting as tightly over the holiday period. They may be your best and speediest option if you’re looking to sell before the new year.
7. Nostalgic Time of Year
The holiday season is a beautiful time to sit and reminisce about the ghosts of holidays past and spend time at home with loved ones. While this quality time is priceless, it can provide an unexpected roadblock in the home-selling process.
Those looking to move may not want to move around the holidays, as they want one last holiday in their home or to spend as much time with nearby family and friends as possible. The closeness of the season may cause them to push back their plans to move until the warmer months, or at least until the warm feelings of the season wear off.
The Solution
While you can’t rush people’s emotional timelines, you can offer incentives like a flexible move-in date to give buyers a nudge to act sooner rather than later.
Selling your Baltimore home in winter isn’t without its challenges, but with the right approach, you can make it happen. Stay flexible, consider cash or as-is buyers, and work around the season’s quirks—you’ll sell your home faster and with less stress.