Selling Your Home this Holiday Season? You Should!

Are the upcoming holidays a good time to sell your home? With all the work that goes into them, for most of us, is it worth it to place your home on the market during the busy upcoming holiday season? Real estate professionals say yes. It’s when your home looks the most appealing. Many of us decorate our homes with Christmas trees, wreaths, Santa statues, reindeers or Hanukah bushes. We also cook more turkeys, cookies and cranberry nut breads this time of year, which fills our homes with the wonderful scents that brings us back to our childhood.

It’s not too late to list your home. I spoke with veteran real estate broker, Sheri Kamikow, from the Coldwell Banker Lincoln Park Plaza office, about the advantages of selling your home during the holidays. Ms. Kamikow said it was an excellent time to sell your home. There are many reasons for buyers to feel motivated to purchase now.

“Interest rates are at an historic low, averaging 4.25 percent. This may not last much longer, so now is the time to apply for a mortgage, " Ms. Kamikow explains. She also contends that prices are still lower than they have been in years and showing few signs of going down further. So why not buy now, rather than wait for better deals?

The Lincoln Park neighborhood, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Square and some areas of Lakeview appear to have stabilized in terms of pricing over the past few months. The South Loop and Rogers Park areas that are still struggling as values of homes continue to drop. There are fewer buyers in the marketplace today and homes are now competing with foreclosed properties, which is the main reason that values have continued to drop.

According to Ms. Kamikow, the good news is that banks with foreclosed properties are now putting money into the homes they foreclose on. They are then selling these homes for a higher price, which lifts the bottom for all homeowners in the marketplace. This is very good news for all of us looking to reap a good value for our home. And, it appears that this trend will continue.

There are also less FSBO (For Sale by Owner) homes on the market because it takes much more work to sell your home than it has in the past. It’s not enough to have your home listed in the newspaper or in the MLS. Real estate companies now list in multiple search sites, such as Google, AOL, Realtor, Zillow and Chicago Tribune. Ms. Kamikow says information on your home needs to be all over the Internet to attract a potential buyer.

People are buying for the neighborhood, according to Ms. Kamiko. They are picking where they want to live and what lifestyle that neighborhood represents to them. So, what a better time than to showcase your home and neighborhood than the holidays!

Tagged as: Chicago residential real estate, residential real estate, home values, mortgage rates and Coldwell Banker

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Terri Lee Ryan is a former Chicago commercial real estate broker, marketing consultant and hotel developer. An avid writer, she is the author of Life Is One Big To-Do List. In “People, Places and Property” she dishes on leaders in real estate, new places in your neighborhood and deals being done in Chicago.