As a real estate agent, it was always about this time of year that I would make sure that I finished the year off strong by focusing my efforts around understanding the importance of the one deadline that was often extremely important to my property sellers… and that deadline is Christmas.
Right now most real estate agents have basically 3 sellers on their books…
- Wants to be sold & moved before Christmas.
- Wants to find a buyer & hopes to be sold before Christmas.
- Doesn’t really care if the property sells this year or next year.
Every year, around this time, I’ve found that there are some sellers who definitely want to have their property sold & want to be moved prior to Christmas so they can celebrate Christmas in their new home.
If you need confirmation that Christmas is an important deadline to home sellers, just ask the new home Builders & Conveyancers who frantically work like crazy in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas to either get the home built or get the transaction settled.
I also know first hand that Christmas is an important deadline for home sellers, because I remember as a kid, the builders let us move into our brand new home on Christmas Eve. I still remember how excited our whole family was about moving in & how happy my parents were when they got the keys that day.
We’d been watching for months as our new home was being built & we were all so keen to spend Christmas in our new home that we ended up sleeping on mattresses on the floor waiting for Santa. It was like camping indoors.
I’ll never forget it because all that night, my sisters & I were hoping that Santa knew that we had moved.
Then, as I mentioned earlier, the second category of sellers don’t particularly have to move before Christmas, but they just want to have the peace of mind of knowing that they have the sold sticker on their property prior to Christmas & they don’t have to worry about keeping the place tidy just in case a buyer wants to do an inspection.
These sellers can start packing & getting ready for their move over the holidays & be comfortably settled into their new home just in time for the first term of school to start.
Moving prior to the start of the first term of school can be an extremely important part of the timing around the sale for some sellers, especially if their children are moving to a new school & should be part of your discussions with your sellers when considering the timing for the sale.
And, then there are the other sellers who don’t really care & will be happy to sell when they get their price sometime in 2010.
So, all you really need to do now to finish the year off strong is identify who amongst your existing home sellers wants to be sold by Christmas.
Contact all of your sellers & ask them this simple question…
“Would You Like To Have Your Property Sold Before Christmas?”
And then arrange a meeting with the ones who want to be sold so you can set a plan & check out their specific timing needs.
Bear in mind that if they do want to be both sold & moved by Christmas then you’d probably need to find them a buyer sometime within the next 3 weeks.
I hope this helps you to finish strong & helps your sellers get the Christmas present they want ~ their house sold.
PS: If you want some inspiration about finishing strong in 2009, here’s one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen, featuring Nick Vujicic.
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