Selling a home during the holidays may sound like bad timing. Many homeowners assume that once November arrives, buyers disappear, real estate activity slows to a crawl, and the best strategy is to take the home off the market and wait until after the new year.
In my experience selling homes throughout California, I see it differently.
At Mills Realty, we take a contrarian approach to the fourth quarter. When other sellers decide to wait, that can create an opportunity for the homeowners who stay in the market.
There are still buyers looking for homes in November and December. The difference is that there are often fewer properties competing for their attention.
We have maintained consistent sales throughout the fourth quarter over the years, and one of the biggest lessons I have learned is simple: you cannot sell your home to a buyer who does not know it is available.
If you are considering selling a house during the holidays in California, here is why waiting until spring may not always be the advantage it appears to be.
Why We Take a Contrarian Approach to Selling During the Holidays
Every year, some sellers decide to take their homes off the market during the holidays. Other homeowners who are thinking about selling decide not to list at all until January or spring.
I understand the reasoning. The holidays are busy. Sellers have family plans, travel, parties, and other commitments. There is also a longstanding perception that spring is the “best” time to sell a home.
But there is another side to the equation that sellers sometimes overlook.
When a large number of homeowners make the same decision to wait, the sellers who remain on the market may face significantly less competition.
That is why I like to use what I call the big fish in a small pond versus small fish in a big pond analogy.
Would you rather have your home competing against a smaller number of listings, or wait until everyone else has the same idea and suddenly find yourself competing against many more properties?
More buyers do not automatically create a better selling environment if the number of competing homes increases at the same time.
Fewer Homes for Sale Can Mean Less Competition for Your Property
Think about how buyers actually search for homes today.
A buyer enters a location, price range, number of bedrooms, property type, and other criteria into an online home search. They are then presented with the homes that are currently available.
If there are 30 comparable properties competing for that buyer’s attention, your home is one of 30.
If there are 10, you are one of 10.
That does not guarantee that your home will sell, but it can improve one important part of the equation: visibility.
A properly priced and well-presented property can be easier to notice when buyers have fewer alternatives.
This is one reason I do not automatically recommend that a seller wait simply because the holidays are approaching.
Buyers Do Not Stop Looking for Homes Because It Is November or December
One of the mistakes sellers can make is trying to guess why someone would buy a home during the holidays.
Maybe the buyer is relocating for work. Maybe a lease is ending. Maybe there has been a change in their family. Maybe they have been searching for months and finally found the right property. Maybe they simply decided that now is the time to buy.
There is no way to know every buyer’s motivation, and I do not think sellers need to.
The important point is that there are always buyers looking to move.
We have seen that firsthand through our own fourth-quarter sales.
If a qualified buyer is searching for exactly the type of property you own, the only way to get your home in front of that buyer is to have it on the market.
If you decide to wait until January, February, or March, that buyer may have already purchased another home.
Selling Before the First-Quarter Rush Can Be an Advantage
This is particularly important as we look ahead to 2027.
Based on the economic pressures we are seeing and our experience in the California market, I expect a significant number of homeowners who have delayed selling to bring their properties to market during the first quarter of 2027.
For a homeowner already considering a sale, my preference would generally be to get ahead of that potential increase in inventory rather than automatically waiting to join it.
This goes back to the big fish, small pond concept.
If your home is ready to sell and buyers are already searching, there can be value in entering the market while competing inventory is relatively limited.
Waiting for what is traditionally considered a “better” selling season can mean entering a more crowded marketplace.
More Spring Buyers Do Not Necessarily Mean a Better Result
Spring typically gets most of the attention in real estate because activity tends to increase.
But sellers should look at both sides of the supply-and-demand equation.
Yes, there may be more buyers in the market during a traditionally active selling season. There may also be considerably more sellers competing for those buyers.
That means your home has to compete against more listings for:
- Online views
- Buyer showings
- Open-house traffic
- Offers
- Buyer attention
The question should not simply be, “When will there be the most buyers?”
A better question is, “When will my home be in the strongest competitive position?”
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
For a broader look at listing timing, read my article on the best time to use Flat Fee MLS for selling.
You Can Sell During the Holidays Without Giving Up Your Holidays
One legitimate concern sellers have is showing their home during November and December.
There may be Thanksgiving plans, holiday parties, visiting relatives, travel, or days when allowing a showing simply is not practical.
My advice is straightforward: the more accessible a property is, the better.
Buyers need to get inside the home to decide whether they want to buy it.
However, that does not mean a seller needs to make the property available every minute of every day.
If you need restricted showing times during the holidays, you can establish them.
In my experience, buyers tend to have more tolerance for reasonable showing restrictions during this time of year because they understand that sellers have holiday commitments too.
A property that can be shown only during certain hours is still available.
A property that is not listed at all is invisible to the buyer.
I would much rather work around some reasonable showing restrictions than miss the opportunity to reach buyers who are actively searching.
Holiday Decorations Are Not the Main Issue
Sellers sometimes become overly concerned about whether they should decorate their home for the holidays.
I would not make this more complicated than it needs to be.
You still want the property to show well. You do not want excessive decorations to overwhelm rooms, make spaces appear smaller, or distract buyers from the home itself.
But you are still living in your home.
Tasteful holiday decorations are not going to change the fundamentals of the transaction.
Price, condition, presentation, accessibility, and exposure are much more important.
The Holidays Will Not Rescue an Overpriced Home
There is one point where my advice does not change based on the calendar: pricing.
Pricing a home correctly is not a holiday strategy. It is a real estate strategy.
If you overprice your property, November versus March is not going to solve the problem.
The current market requires sellers to pay close attention to price. Based on the economic environment and the market conditions we are seeing, sellers need to be aggressive and realistic if their goal is to get the property sold.
Less competition during the holidays can help your home stand out, but it does not give you permission to ignore comparable sales or current buyer behavior.
In fact, the opportunity created by lower inventory is most valuable when the home is positioned correctly from the beginning.
If buyers see your property online but immediately conclude that it is overpriced, having fewer competing listings does not accomplish much.
You still have to give buyers a reason to act.
I explain why overpricing your home can cost you more in a separate article, including how an unrealistic asking price can reduce showings and weaken your negotiating position.
What Happens When You Wait Until Spring?
Imagine two homeowners with similar properties.
The first seller lists in November. There are relatively few comparable properties available in the immediate area. Buyers searching in that price range see the home repeatedly because there simply are not many alternatives.
The second seller decides to wait.
January arrives. Then February. Other homeowners who made the same decision begin putting their properties on the market.
By the time the second seller lists, buyer activity may have increased, but so has the seller’s competition.
Instead of being one of a handful of choices, the property is now competing with a much larger group of homes.
Which position would you rather be in?
There is no universal answer because every property, seller, and local market is different. But it illustrates why I do not believe sellers should automatically assume that waiting for spring puts them in a stronger position.
Sometimes waiting simply means waiting for more competition.
Should You Sell Your California Home During the Holidays?
The decision should ultimately depend on your circumstances, your property, your local market, and your goals.
But I would not take your home off the market, or postpone listing it, simply because the calendar says November or December.
From our experience selling homes throughout California, fourth-quarter buyers are still there. We continue to sell homes throughout the fourth quarter, even while other sellers are sitting on the sidelines.
The advantages of selling during the holidays can include:
- Fewer competing homes for sale
- Greater visibility among the listings that remain available
- Active buyers who still need or want to move
- An opportunity to sell before additional inventory enters the market
- The ability to establish reasonable holiday showing restrictions while remaining available to buyers
Most importantly, being on the market gives you an opportunity that waiting cannot provide.
A buyer cannot make an offer on a home they do not know is for sale.
Selling During the Holidays With Mills Realty
Selling during the holidays does not mean you should spend more than necessary to get your home in front of buyers.
Mills Realty offers California sellers multiple listing options designed to provide professional MLS exposure while allowing sellers to choose the level of service that fits their needs.
Our Flat Fee Listing Plans range from entry-only MLS exposure to full-service representation, giving California homeowners an alternative to the traditional commission structure.
If you are comparing your selling options, my article on whether a Flat Fee MLS listing is worth it explains how exposure, service levels, and commission savings fit together.
Regardless of which approach you choose, the fundamentals remain the same: expose the property to the market, make it reasonably accessible, present it well, and price it aggressively enough to compete.
After selling more than 1,000 homes, one lesson I continue to come back to is that following the crowd is not always the best strategy.
When other sellers leave the market for the holidays, that may be exactly when your home has an opportunity to stand out.
If you are considering selling your California home before the end of the year, review Mills Realty’s Flat Fee Listing Plans to see which option makes the most sense for your property and your goals.
You can contact us directly via email, text or phone
Mills Realty
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