Reasons December is a Great Month for the Real Estate Market

Every real estate professional will tell you that “now” is always a good time to start a connection with leads and that buyers and sellers are busy people with a lot on their plates and can be hard to reach in the final months of the year. The best realtors however, know that a little extra work during the holiday season can produce more powerful returns. Pursuing leads in December can be one of the most important addition to your yearly marketing strategy. If done right, you can finish the year strong, set yourself up for a great new year, get ahead of your competitors, and make some sales you might not be possible any other month of the year. Here are the main reasons why December is a great month for the real estate market:

People who are buying before a new year begins are serious buyers.

They are buying with a purpose. Whether a new year’s resolution, a fulfillment of an entire year’s planning, a fresh new start, a divorce – there’s ultimately always a reason for that move. Use this to your advantage and make sure to be innovative about what kind of approach you will use to help them meet their goals. If you present the right offer and you can reach out to them while they are finalizing their plan for the coming year, you have a huge chance to be a part of their year-end budget or even make an early year sale.

December is a great time to reach out to property owners, too.  A lot of potential sellers are workaholics and are most likely planning their strategies for the year to come. They’re busy thinking of new ways to become more successful in the following year. Research shows that prospecting in December can account for as much as 80 % of Q4 sales. That alone makes December lead follow ups worth the extra effort.

The holiday season presents a great opportunity for gifts, promotions and other marketing strategies that can actually work.

Make sure your inventory looks great and that you are at your most creative. Come up with marketing ideas that will be hard to resist. Need help in boosting your marketing strategy? Get it touch with one of The VA Hub’s business advisors now.

December can enable you to generate more highly valuable non-competitive opportunities.

You may be thinking that your leads are going to be harder to reach this month which translates to other realtors probably thinking the same thing. So while they’re off on holiday vacations you MUST chase as many leads as possible.

In addition, Realtor.com says that 50% of homes are sold in the summer which essentially means that if a buyer wants to get the best deal and avoid a stressful bidding war, their odds are best when the weather turns colder and the days are shorter. There will be a drop in the number of buyers during Christmas week, so the chance of multiple offers or any competition is predictably very low.

People are more inclined to spend lavishly.

But even if this is the case, some prices typically drop to a 12-month low in December. Every year, sales in January tend to show a drop in prices, suggesting that buyers who made offers in November and December got the best deals. For example, in the summer of 2014, median home prices went above $220,000, only to drop below $200,000 in January of the following year. Median home prices nearly hit $240,000 the next summer, only to move down again in the late fall.

Traditionally, people will buy during the peak seasons of spring and summer, when there may be more options but that also means more competition and potentially higher prices. That’s why you shouldn’t neglect the holiday season for home hunting.

 
Ultimately, it’s not just about making calls to prospects all the time. Deciding on which periods of the year to add a little bit of effort into making your prospecting calls will affect your success rates and how your prospects will see you when it comes to deciding whether or not to do close a sale with you. Choose the days that give most potential to making sales and make sure you are polite and understanding, so they feel that you are genuinely interested in helping them.