Not most wonderful time of the year to sell a house

Chad and Colleen Ponchot of Hebron, Ky., knocked $10,000 off theirhome's appraised value after putting it up for sale last month.

The Ponchots decided to sell the home for $189,000 instead of$199,000 because of barriers they expect in trying to market the homebetween Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. The house still has notsold.

"We probably could have gotten more money in the springtime, butselling it quickly now is more important to us than getting the fullappraised value," Chad Ponchot said.

Deciding to sell your home during the holiday shopping season canbe a challenge, real estate experts say.

Among the reasons:

*Consumers are too busy buying gifts for family and friends ortraveling to spend the necessary time and energy to house hunt.

*They are more focused on how much money they will have to spendduring the holidays than on big-ticket items.

*Bad weather during the winter, including icy roads, can reducethe number of people who have the desire to pre-screen homes or visitopen houses.

"If I was a seller and I could avoid listing this time of theyear, I would," said Norman Miller, director of the University ofCincinnati's real estate program. "If I had the discretion, I wouldwait until closer to spring when activity picks up."

Walt Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors,said the biggest increase for home buying occurs in March and April,a reason the May-July period is the peak for home sale closings.

"People often wait [to sell] until spring when they have a largerpool of buyers, are more likely to get multiple bids and have thegreatest possibility of getting a higher price," Molony said.

Some homeowners don't have the luxury of waiting for prime sellingseason, however.

That was the case for Nancy Higley and her husband, Don Ball, ofLoveland, Ohio.

The couple listed their home for $184,900 instead of waiting untilspring and selling it for $190,000 because Higley is relocating toNew York to start a new job.

In order to help sell it faster during the holiday season, thecouple priced the home lower than what they would have listed it forin a non-holiday season, when it would have fetched a higher price.The home still has not sold.

"We did this because we wanted to make the home competitivelypriced to expedite the sale," Higley said.

But Realtors said there are some advantages to selling homesbetween Thanksgiving and New Year's.

For one thing, sellers will have less competition because fewerhomes are on the market, said Barb Sondgerath, a Realtor withColdwell Banker West Shell in Crestview Hills, Ky.

"If there are only four houses in your neighborhood for sale, thenyou might be able to get more money for your house than if there areeight houses for sale," she said.

And Joe Linz, manager at Star One Realtors in Cincinnati, saysthat smaller pool of winter house-hunters could be a more seriousone. January is often when companies relocate employees, and many ofthose buyers can't wait until spring to begin shopping.

"We have homes this time of year that sell within a week of thelisting, depending on their location, if they are priced right and ingood condition," he said.

Gannett News Service