Now Is Still a Good Time to List Your Home or Cabin

Minnesotans often assume that spring and summer are the only good seasons for selling their homes and cabins. To be very sure, there are many advantages to selling your house when the entire world isn’t blanketed beneath ice. But if you focus only on them, then you’ll overlook the value of selling your house in the winter.

That’s right – if you’re reading this when there’s snow outside, then now is still a good time to list your home or cabin! Minnesotans listed over 15,000 properties for sale in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Many of them likely knew that there are several pros to selling during the wintertime.

What are these advantages, you might ask? Grab the nearest mug of hot cocoa and lets get started!

Buyers Are More Motivated During Winter

“Tire kickers.” This is what we call people who shop without any real intention of buying. And while we have nothing against folks who enjoy shopping as a pastime, they do present an inconvenience when you’re trying to sell your home or cabin.

Tire kickers are mostly inactive during the winter. When we list houses or lake cabins for sale in February, for example, we invariably notice a much higher percentage of serious buyers. Although the total turnout during winter showings may be lower than if we had listed that same residence in the spring, the people who do show up are there because they need to move soon. Less looky-loos means you and your realtor can make more efficient use of your time!

Home Sellers Have Less Competition During Winter

May, June, July and August account for about 40% of home sales in the United States. The saturated summer real estate market is great as far as buyers who love options are concerned, but home sellers themselves often face stiff competition with so many other houses and cabins on the scene.

When you list your property for sale in the winter, it becomes much easier to stand out in your marketplace. Instead of dozens of options in your hometown, buyers may have only two or three properties to consider. If your house happens to be one of them, then they’ll have to consider it much more seriously than if they had several alternatives.

Less competition doesn’t just mean fewer days on the market. Buyers who have fewer options generally feel less confident making multiple lowball offers and hoping that one of them sticks. That’s why people who sell during winter often receive offers closer to their asking prices!

Winter Is a Better Time to Showcase Some Homes’ Features

For whatever reason, many homes just show better during winter. Some architectural styles lend themselves better to that cozy, intimate feeling people seek when the weather is miserable. If your home has a prominent fireplace, and you turn it up full blast during showings, that’s really going to strike the right chord with Minnesotans who love taking refuge from the cold.

And if your home boasts exceptional energy efficiency, then what better time to show that off than when it counts for the most? As gas and electricity costs steadily rise, energy-efficient features are becoming increasingly important to home buyers.

People Like Looking Forward to Enjoying Their New Cabins

This advantage to selling during the wintertime pertains more to lake cabins and other vacation homes. People like anticipating good things, which is why a significant number of them do buy their summer cabins long before the right season to enjoy them arrives. They also buy cabins in winter so they can have plenty of time to update their interiors before the warmer months come. When you list a cabin for sale during winter, you get to tap into that market of forward-thinking buyers. Counterintuitively, many Minnesotans combat “cabin fever” by going out and buying cabins!

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Would you like to list your home or cabin for sale this winter – or are you looking for real estate in one of the most idyllic parts of Minnesota? The Boll Realty team has served sellers and buyers throughout Otter Tail County, Minnesota since 1975, and we’re standing by to help with all your home, cabin, hunting land and farmland needs. We welcome you to reach out to us today!