As we come into the winter months, clients often ask me, “Should I keep my home listed for sale during the winter months?  We were thinking we should just take it off the market until spring?  What do you think?”  Here we are with winter closing in November 1st, and this is the question many are asking.  While the answer to this question is certainly relevant to sellers, buyers also have a keen interest in what will happen in November, December, January, and February.

Home Listed for Sale in Winter Months

In a small real estate market like Sequim and Port Angeles, there are a small number of buyers.  If you have a home listed for sale in the MLS during the spring and summer months, and you take it off the market during the winter months, you may miss the few qualified buyer who are looking for a home here, and out of those potential buyers, you could miss the one buyer who would have bought your home.

The next question that is asked is, “If I keep my home listed for sale during the winter months, how many potential buyers do we really get in the winter months?”

I’ve examined all homes sold above $200,000 last year in the Olympic Listing Service.  In October of last year (2010), 31 homes were sold and closed during the month.  That’s 31 real buyers.  In November of last year, 27 homes listed for sale sold and closed, and in December 37 homes closed.  Any homes that were taken off the market would never have been seen by those buyers.  I should add that there is a lag when people make an offer and when it closes, but that is usually 30 to 45 days.  For cash buyers, it may be as little as two to three weeks.

Home Listed and Sold

You might think that buyers don’t buy in the winter months, but that isn’t true.  Not in the Sequim area.  Buyers are coming every single month, and I’ve sold homes in every winter month.  My recommendation is to keep your home listed for sale.  If you want to talk about the marketing, give me a call.  The key to selling your home is marketing in this technology and Internet age.  It is critical, absolutely critical that your agent be on the cutting edge of modern marketing, or you might not connect with that one buyer for your home.

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• Prices of Sequim Homes for Sale, Port Angeles Real Estate

Here’s what’s been happening in the Sequim and Port Angeles real estate market (the stats include all of Clallam County for the fourth quarter of 2007 and are provided by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research).

New building permits are down 18.6% from one year ago. Homes sold are down in Clallam County by 20.4% for the fourth quarter (2007) compared to one year ago. The median price of a home is $225,000, which is down 6.2% from last year.

Statewide, these states look like this: building permits are down 17.3%, homes sold are down 13.7%, and the median price of a home is $293,900, down 2.5%.

While sellers would like home prices to keep going up, up, and up (prices have been doubling in Sequim every 7 to 10 years), buyers are given a reprieve from the slowing rate of increase (even a small decrease) in prices. So buyers are saying, “Thank God.”

There are more homes for sale in Sequim, Washington and Port Angeles, Washington than last year at this time, but again, that is good if you are buying. Of course, since many of our homebuyers come from California, Arizona, and other states, if those buyers are unable to sell their homes at a fair price within a reasonable period of time, they will not be ready, willing, and able to buy here.

But there are still buyers who have planned to retire and move here, who have the money, and the timing of this real estate market only plays in their favor. That also means sellers are still selling, which they are. In this kind of market it is even more critical that sellers have the highest level of competence and experience in their Realtor. Anything less could cost them tens of thousands of dollars and months of delay.

I recently sold a Sequim home for $759,000, and the buyers were from Arizona. The sellers were pleased to sell their home in this market, and the buyers are delighted to have found their dream home. Amidst the news media’s dramatic headlines, we still are making buyers and sellers happy here at Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate.

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• Should I Keep My Home Listed for Sale During the Winter Months?