First of all, we hope you and your family had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day and if you've been shopping today that you found the bargains you were looking for.
Thanksgiving always heralds in the start of the Christmas season and, rather less joyously, another annual tradition we get to see in the real estate industry around now is a number of sellers taking their homes off the market until the New Year.
There is still a widely-held misconception that homes do not sell around the holidays.
In reality, however, this is actually a great time of year for our industry, not least because, let's face it, anyone who is seriously looking at a home right now really needs to move. This is not a time when people choose to casually view property.
Indeed it could be argued that the holiday season is when we see perhaps the most motivated buyers of the entire 12 month cycle.
So let's consider the types of buyer we see in late November and through December.
Lots of jobs start in January, so many end of year buyers are looking to relocate before then. In many ways these are dream buyers, because they don't have the luxury of being able to put off the purchase. Temporarily taking your home off the market now means you'll completely miss these incredibly keen and well qualified buyers.
Quick sales are also common, as people like to move in before the Christmas celebrations if they possibly can.
There are also tax incentives that explain the enthusiasm of many late year buyers who need everything to be sorted by December 31st.
Another great thing about this time of year is that people are generally more emotional and far more likely to make a purchasing decision in that state of mind.
Perhaps you've already decorated your home and well done if you have, because it will look at its very best to wow your viewers and play to those emotions.
The other great aspect of the holidays is that people have more time in their lives than usual to look at homes. Better yet, they are also able to focus on the home purchase decision in a way that simply doesn't happen at any other moment in the year.
And if you're concerned about having large numbers of viewers descending on you at such a busy time, it's always possible to arrange to restrict the numbers to suit you better.
While all the above arguments make a lot of sense, unfortunately there will still be sellers who, for a variety of reasons, still feel compelled to leave the market until January arrives.
This, in itself, presents a fantastic opportunity as, with inventory levels of available homes already very low in the Albuquerque area, they are going to be lower still for the next few weeks, allowing those who keep the faith to enjoy even less competition with other homes and, crucially, their asking prices will be a lot more robust.
While we've seen mortgage rates on the rise since the election, in one sense this could even be a good thing in the short term as there's a decent chance that many buyers will want to lock rates in in case they climb any higher - indeed a few days ago the Wall Street Journal said that mortgage applications were up 13% as a direct result. Playing a waiting game to see if they drop again is very risky, so it wouldn't be surprising if this December sees a number of buyers with a heightened sense of urgency for this reason alone.
Hopefully we've convinced you that there are some extremely compelling reasons to stay on the market in the next few weeks. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions on this subject or any aspect of real estate.
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