http://seacoastrealty.com/blog/categoryname_home-sellers/sort_entrydatetime-desc/ Far too often home sellers are reluctant to list their homes for sell in the winter months out of fear that the home will sit on the market until the spring “selling season.” Let me ease a bit of that fear, and tell you some of the many benefits of selling in the winter.Winter Buyers are MotivatedBuyers who are willing to disrupt their holiday vacations are pretty serious about buying. In many cases these buyers are in a position that they have to move be it a job transfer, a new baby, or family obligations. Because they are so motivated, they are usually prepared. A prepared buyer usually results in a quicker transaction! These buyers also know what they want, and if they request a showing of your home, there is a good chance that an offer will follow. Trying to close before January is also a huge motivating factor, as both buyers and sellers can sometimes benefit from the tax credits and deductions that come with a real estate transaction.Many Large Companies Transfer Employees at the Beginning of the YearIn growing cities and towns (and our area is one of those!) when a company relocates or opens a location, they often transfer employees for the start of the new year. I am no business finance expert, but my guess is that in doing so theses companies are able to better organize their financial and tax ventures. This puts the Buyer in a situation to buy quickly, as oftentimes corporations will fund the move and have set timelines for when the move occurs.Less Competition and Less InventorySellers whose homes are on the market in the winter months have the great advantage of less competition. Since spring is the “hottest market” and most sellers list at that time, winter sellers enter a market with fewer homes. Buyers have less to look at and are able to choose more easily without being pulled in a million different directions. The Holidays Give Your Home Extra SparkleSelling during the holidays may be stressful, but think about how pretty your home looks dressed in all of its holiday finery. Winter is the perfect time to highlight the cozy features of your home. Holidays naturally elicit feelings of nostalgia and memories of home. The winter time allows sellers to capitalize on that. Not only does your home look shiny, but chances are your neighbors’ houses looked a bit better too.Southeastern Weather!Sellers in our area have an extra ace in the pocket, our mild winter weather. In places like Boston or New York home selling in the winter months can be a bit tricky due to large amounts of winter precipitation. Not here! Many of the buyers in our area are transplants tired of the cold. In Florida these buyers are “winter birds;” in NC they are “Half Backs”. That is “They move to Florida and realize it is a little too warm, so they come half-way back.” Many of the buyers that our sellers encounter have come to the coast for a vacation from the cold, and enjoyed our temperatures (Hello, it was 70 degrees in December!) so much that they decided to stay.In closing, you shouldn’t be scared to sell in the winter. In fact, you might just have some big advantages! If you are thinking about selling, give one of our many agents a call. They can talk you through all of the advantages and help get your home SOLD! You can find tons of Seller Resources on our website here http://www.seacoastrealty.com/pages/getting-your-house-ready-to-sell http://seacoastrealty.com/blog/1783/5-advantages-to-selling-your-home-in-the-winter-months/ Mon, 07 Dec 2015 12:00:00 -0500  If you have been following along on our family adventure, you already know that moving and buying our new home has faced some unique circumstances. My family and I are located in the US, the seller of our soon-to-be home is based in the United Arab Emirates. This meant that throughout the buying process our agent had to be knowledgeable on the longer than usual buying process. It meant that my family had to practice patience, because any communication with the seller resulted in a longer than usual response time. My family and I had succeeded. We had a closing date! We set up utilities, changed our mailing addresses, and contracted various businesses to begin renovations (all for a closing date start date).  We should have closed and been happily nestled into our new home within 3 weeks of close. There was a bubble of excitement bobbing over all of our heads.The night before the closing date, I carefully coordinated outfits for our family of five to pop against the purple front door of our new home. We would head from the attorney’s office and head straight to the house for a quick sweet family pic. As soon as the last sock was placed on the last set of clothing my husband and I received a text....a very disappointing text. Our agent needed to speak with us asap.BAM! The happy bubble had burst. Closing would be pushed back a week. The sellers had not properly signed the deed. We are a pretty "roll-with-it" family, so after a few muffled curse words (the kids were all in bed) we accepted that life would happen and we would go on.Cue closing date Number Two. This time I decided to save myself some laundry time and just go with our regular everyday clothes. Cue call Number Two. Again, the closing would be delayed. The deed, which we were now assured had been re-signed, had not arrived as promised. There was talk of the sellers being on holiday, taking a special trip to London because the legal process is smoother there, and long courier times. I really am not sure what the details were. All I knew was that once again I was going to have to call all of the contractors and reschedule. The I was going to have to tell three children under the age of 7 years that our day was not going to include going to the new house. I was crushed.My husband and I stayed up late that night. We went through every possible scenario, and decided that if the house did not close on the next scheduled date we would have to walk. We were both paranoid that there was something bad going wrong, despite the assurance from our agent that this was not terribly uncommon when dealing with overseas sellers. The Door looks red here, but I assure you it is a very interesting shade of purple...Closing date Three...YES! WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! And the kicker, our awesome agent was able to negotiate our first full month of bills paid by the seller due to the long delay! Our family skipped the matching outfits. We drove to the house and played in the yard. We walked around and guessed at where Santa might leave Christmas gifts. We introduced ourselves to neighbors through the fence posts. We were a family who was finally home. Memories multiplied, and all was right with the world.Tell us about your home-buying experiences! Did all go smoothly, or were there hurdles to jump along the way? You can join the conversation on our Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/seacoastrealtyReady to jump into the home-buying adventures? You’ll need a rockstar agent, like my own, and you can find one herehttp://www.seacoastrealty.com/ http://seacoastrealty.com/blog/1300/what-to-expect-when-buying-a-home:-please-please-just-give-us-the-keys!/ Fri, 25 Sep 2015 12:00:00 -0500