Is the Boxing Day property boom a myth?and who really benefits from sellers signing up to estate agents promotions that claim its the best day of the year to launch your property for sale on the market?
The simple answer is YES, and the estate agent is the one who benefits the most, by getting new sellers to sign up to their services and secure new listings in advance .
Being totally honest, I’ve tried similar marketing strategies myself in the past. However, with the benefit of hindsight and experience, the honest truth is putting your house up for sale on Boxing Day in my opinion is potentially a huge mistake.
Property website like Rightmove & Zoopla, correctly tell us that more new property searches take place is this day each and every year than any other day, but what they don’t tell you is, this massive surge in online views also produces the lowest conversion rate into what is ultimately most important, actual viewing or genuine interest.
If you wait until Boxing Day, you will be competing with loads of new or similar properties for sale, with vendors hoping that casual online browsers will find their property, and be motivated to view and then buy. Even if this was a good idea, and you then need to check that the agent you choose to instruct will actually even be open to deal with any interest or viewing requests, especially if it’s a traditional High Street agent, as Won’t be, and are also likely to be working to reduced open hours throughout the Christmas and the New Year period.
In my opinion launching a new property onto the market on Boxing Day is a great for the agent, but a terrible idea for the sellers.
The last two weeks of December, and the first two/three weeks of January, are historically the slowest sales weeks every year, so when things do kick back into action towards the end of January, you ideally want to avoid your property from showing as listed last year, plus only appear in buyers online searches by them having to select the listed anytime option.
My advice for anyone looking to sell is-
➡️ Choose an highly experienced and knowledgeable local estate agent rather than a corporate chain. Get more than one opinion/valuation, seek recommendations from family and friends, plus check the agents reviews on social media groups and Google etc.
➡️ Go ahead and list your property for sale with your chosen agent when the time is right for you! Ideally avoiding the weeks I previously mentioned before it’s listed on the major property websites like Rightmove, Zoopla and On The Market.
➡️ Avoid overly ambitious valuations, overpricing your property may end up with you selling for less in the long run if you start too high.
➡️ At this time of the year, most good agents will offer you the option of an initial soft market launch, which initially just utilisies their databases of buyers with a local social media marketing campaign , prior to the full scale launch in January.
For more information about all the professional property services that I’ve been providing my clients in St Albans with for over 30 years, please take a look at my website-
https://benjaminstevensstalbans.co.uk/
If you would like any advice about selling your property, or to arrange a free, no obligation valuation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards
Neil Hughes
Benjamin Stevens St Albans
☎️ 07375 804922
📧Neil.Hughes@benjaminstevens.co.uk
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