Three Reasons Why November is a Great Month for Home Sellers

1. Less Competition

If your sellers are worried about listing during the winter, they’re not alone. Many people worry that listing their home in the winter months won’t be worth it. In other words, they fear that they won’t have many buyers scheduling showings and won’t attract adequate turnout at open houses.

You can reassure sellers by letting them know that there are always people looking for desirable homes regardless of the season. Even more importantly, if your clients’ house is one of the few on the market during November, it can work to their advantage.  Remind them that when inventory is low, their home may have an easier time catching the eye of prospective buyers. Plus, shorter days and wintry weather have no effect on Internet searches. So if buyers are looking online, fewer listings means less searching to find your sellers’ homes. Lower inventory can sometimes speed up the home sale.

2. Motivated Buyers

Chances are if buyers are out home shopping in November, they’ve got a pretty good reason. Perhaps their search is triggered by a timely life event, such as a recent job relocation or maybe they simply didn’t have free time until the fall to really start looking. Regardless of the reason, if buyers are looking in November they are truly motivated. Their motivation may be price-driven, too.

Buyers sometimes postpone their search until after the busy season to find a motivated seller who has realistically priced the home to sell. In spring and summer months, sellers run the risk of attracting not-so-serious buyers. These so-called “tire-kickers,” tend to come out of the woodwork when the weather is nicer, more out of curiosity than real desire to purchase a home. So in some ways, fall is really prime time for truly serious buyers.

3. Year-end Tax Breaks

Homes purchased during November come with attractive tax breaks including deductions for points, interest and property taxes. A buyer may also be motivated to buy a new home to avoid paying capital gains on the proceeds from the sale of a house they closed on in the preceding summer. There are a host of deductions that the IRS allows for homeowners. You can help educate your clients with a little research about the IRS’s Information for Homeowners. This information can help provide more convincing reasons why November and December are great times to sell a home — and a great time to buy one too.

Don’t forget to mention to your clients that adding an American Home Shield^® Home Warranty to their listing is another smart way to entice buyers. It shows good faith and offers an assurance to buyers that covered breakdowns of the home appliances and/or major components of home systems fall under their AHS^® Home Warranty for the first year of ownership. No matter the season, an AHS Home Warranty makes sense for sellers and buyers during any real estate transaction.

When you help educate your clients, they’ll soon realize why spring and summer aren’t always the best time to sell. November can truly be the ideal time to list.

Sources:
https://www.trulia.com/blog/november-best-month-sell-home/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlewaterfronthomes/2012/11/29/dont-let-your-real-estate-listing-hibernate-winter-home-sellers-have-advantages/
https://www.newhomesource.com/resourcecenter/articles/smart-time-to-buy-a-new-home
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p530/ar02.html#en_US_2015_publink100011838

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