Seasonality – When to Put your Ibis Home on the Market?

If you ride your bike, its time to start watching out for Irving on the roundabout!  The weekend wait for Guanabanas might be 3 hours long instead of 2.  Figure 30 minutes to get to Costco on Northlake in rush hour.  Historically, it’s good news for business and bad news for getting around.   Snowbirds – love them and hate them.  The next 4-12 weeks is also the start of the Real Estate season. Buyers who want to be settled for the season come down and buy now until Thanksgiving. The renters looking to purchase who spur lots of activity don’t start their rental until January 1, 2025. So, when is the best time to put your home on the market?  Here is how  the 10 stages of “Seasonality” works.

All buyers start looking online right about now as fall is getting closer. October 15th officially marks the beginning of “pre-season” The best advice I can give is to get your home on the market early.  The reason why is “TIME”.  You don’t ever know if the market is going to be hot or cold.  However, the more time you have, the more you can be patient for the perfect Buyer. As a wise man once said, if its not on the market, its not going to sell.  Plus, it takes time to get your home ready. Furthermore, bad weather patterns can delay photos by weeks and thus postponing marketing from populating though various advertising mediums.

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On January 1, 2025, it will seem like you have until the end of the world to market your house. Until you realize you don’t.  Seasonal renters start their rental on January 1. A few stay until January 31. Others until the end of February.  The majority leave on March 31, 2025.  So, its only 12 weeks until the season starts to unwind!

Sellers typically wait until March 1 to lower their prices in mass if it’s a soft season. They realize, “oh s***, the Buyers are going to go home at the end of the month”.  The problem with that is that many of the good buyers already purchased and now you have to lower the price because everyone else lowered it.  You also end up under a time crunch as carry cost to hold a cost is high when you add up taxes, HOA, usage of money at 5% return, insurance, etc..

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Snowbirds are typically here until at least Easter (April 20^th) and usually Mother’s Day (May 11^th – now you can’t say you forgot as us Realtors are good for things like that….and for remembering to turn back the clocks).  Families tune into Real Estate in the Spring and want to be settled before the start of the school year (August 12th, 2025). Most of those purchases happen in April, May and June.  *However, its best to get your family home on the market much earlier during the snowbird season. That’s for a few different reasons. One is it gives you plenty of time. Two, is TURN. There is so much sales activity in season that when one home sells it then lets that Seller who might be a buyer, purchase a home they are looking for. Dominos fall up and down and more activity begets more activity. Snowbirds also take up a lot of the sales and a family home might appeal to both a snowbird who wants a bigger house or a snowbird who has lots of family. Also, if the Seller of a starter townhouse or small home is a family who sells to a snowbird, then that’s when that family has to move. So, family homes move both in snowbird season and family season.

Once we hit mid-June and July, the pace of the market really slows down, unless its an oddball offseason like Covid or a hyper shortage of homes.

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Below is the Normal Schedule of Purchasing

• • Snowbirds arrive between October 15 – November 15.

• • But they do not buy so much between those dates. It’s more back and forth. Then you have Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, New Years.

• • The Renters come down on January 1.

• • Relatives visit during Winter Break. Figure December 20 – January 5.

• • Everyone plays a round of golf, goes to beach, does a Costco run and celebrates the relatives going back up North.

• • Looking takes place between Jan 10^th and February 15^th. People in this time frame are figuring out where they want to be. Do I hold off a year? Delray Beach condo or Palm Beach Gardens Single Family Home? In a normal market, the cherry homes will sell in this period. In a hot market Buying starts here.

• • Feb 15^th – March 31. This is the feeding frenzy. Renters must purchase before their rent ends on March 31. Girt bought a home and now her friend, Barbara, who would like to keep up with Girt, gives her husband Irving the “eyes” at an open house, when he isn’t interested in purchasing. Irving knows from the “eyes” that it’s time to purchase and if he does not than uh oh……….

• • April – May. Snowbirds still buying but with more of a shotgun approach because they know what they want. If it’s a bad market, prices can dip. If it’s a strong market, then there are only leftovers to purchase and you know prices will be going up next season.

• • April – July 3^rd. Families start looking right after spring break. Mid May and June are the big family purchasing months as school ends. Mom wants to purchase by July 4^th. School starts on August 15^th typically and families want to be settled before that date.

• •  July – August- September. Our deadest months. Snowbirds and Renters are long gone. Locals are on vacations. Hurricane watch starts in late August. Some pre buyers will come down after Labor Day. And then the cycle starts again.

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Jon Hazman is one of those few people that you immediately know is the right guy for the job. Jon was in the healthcare field for over 25 years after his Grandpa Bernie got ill with kidney failure. While taking him to treatments he taught Jon important business lessons, like work hard, love what you do and make sure you always take care of clients the way you would want to be treated. “I made it a point to always put the customer first!  In healthcare there is a sense of urgency, every second counts. Why don’t other businesses practice this same principle?” This has guided Jon through his many businesses. Returning a phone call from a client IS a must – and as quickly as possible. Meeting someone and being on time, a must. There should be no another way..