Benefits of Keeping Your Home for Sale on the Market During Winter

Benefits of Keeping Your Home for Sale on the Market During Winter

Some sellers are at it again, proposing to pull their listings from the market until spring (whenever that is in your part of the country). We've consistently taken the position with our clients that going off and on-market is a bad idea. And for the winter of 2016-17, going off-market may be an even bigger mistake.

Here are some very good reasons to keep your listing active on the market this winter:

• Rising mortgage interest rates - Rates are edging upwards and buyers have begun to notice. As buyers begin to feel the pain of diminished expectations, reality should begin to take hold. Many will arrive at the conclusion that waiting means continuing to rent.
• Winter buyers are a determined bunch - You won't encounter as many "just browsing" prospects at open houses or showings in winter. If they're looking at this time of year, they're probably serious.
• When you go off the market, your Web marketing is interrupted - The positive effects of online marketing are hampered by an "on-again, off-again" listing strategy. It makes no sense to interrupt the cumulative benefits of continuing to market your property for sale online.

Winter will be over before you know it.  Even in frigid Minnesota, buyer interest after the holidays tends to begin its resurgence by February. So where's the benefit from going off the market for maybe sixty days?