RE/MAX Agents Report Hope for the Holidays When it Comes to Illinois and Chicago Real Estate Sales

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Jim Merrion, Regional Director, RE/MAX Northern Illinois

"It's true that fewer buyers are active during November and December than at other times of the year, but the home buyer tax credit should bring out more buyers this year and those who shop for a home at this time traditionally are excellent prospects.

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) November 25, 2009

The holiday season in the Illinois and Chicago real estate markets can be considered one of the most difficult times to sell a home. But, those with homes for sale should take heart because there is hope during the holidays, according to the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.

According to Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network, “It’s true that fewer buyers are active during November and December than at other times of the year, but on the bright side, the home buyer tax credit should bring out more buyers this year, and those who shop for a home during the holidays are usually excellent prospects,” said Merrion.

“Holiday season home shoppers mean business, or they wouldn’t be in the market at that time. Sellers may not get the same level of showing activity they could expect in April, but what those showings do get are serious buyers, and that’s the audience you want,” he said. And Merrion speaks from experience; he has sold a home on Christmas Day.

What does it take to make your home the one that sells while sleigh bells jingle? Here are the stories of three homes that went under contract during December 2008:

The City Condo
This two-bedroom, two-bath condo was in a newer, four-story, elevator building on Chicago’s Mid-North Side. The owners were moving out of state, so when Kristi Gunther of RE/MAX Exclusive Properties listed the property, it wasn’t difficult to convince them to do a bit of rearranging. The main change was dismantling the home office that occupied the unit’s second bedroom and turning it back into a bedroom area.

To market the home, Gunther combined aggressive Internet exposure with weekly open houses, and the eventual buyer initially arrived via an open house right before Thanksgiving.

“The buyer was a young single woman who was delighted that the building offered indoor parking and an elevator. Plus she like the fact that it was a top floor, rear unit that was away from street noise and had no upstairs neighbors,” said Gunther. “The floor plan also was ideal for her because the unit has split bedrooms, each with its own bath, so if she wanted to have a roommate, it would work perfectly.”

The Classic Two-Story
When Becky O’Neill of RE/MAX Professionals South listed this four-bedroom, 2½-bath home that had lingered on the market in Plainfield, Ill., she knew it would take some effort to make in stand out, despite the fact that it was in exceptionally nice condition.

“The owners had to roll up their sleeves to make the home as salable as possible,” said O’Neill. “We completely revamped the front room, repainted much of the house in neutral colors and were quite aggressive about decluttering it so that it looked neat, clean and spacious.”

O’Neill relied heavily on the Internet to market the home and offered a full virtual tour to those who checked the listing on line, but also felt that pricing it sharply would be important.

“You want to stay in front of the competition when it comes to price, especially during the holidays, because that is what will get those buyers who are in the market at that point to visit your property. Then, once you have them inside, you can sell them on the features of the home,” she said.

O’Neill noted that while many homes in the area ended up selling from $35,000 or $45,000 below list price last winter, this home sold at just $14,000 under it list price because she had priced it attractively from the start.

The agent for the buyers, in this instance, was Janet Infanger of RE/MAX Enterprises in Downers Grove, Ill. Her clients were being transferred to the Chicago area and were interested in the Plainfield area because they knew people there. But with only one weekend available for house hunting, time was of the essence, and so, too, was finding a home in move-in condition.

“You don’t want to move to Chicago in January and have to start cleaning, repainting or renovating a home,” said Infanger. “My clients loved the layout of this property and really appreciated that it was in excellent condition. They wanted a finished basement, which this home didn’t offer, but the price was low enough that they felt they could have that work done at a later date.”

Custom Country Home
The owners of this expansive custom-built home on a large corner lot in Byron, Ill., already had the house in tip-top shape when Barbara Erdmier of RE/MAX Property Source in Rockford, Ill., listed it in early November.

“The house had been immaculately updated with special emphasis on the kitchen, which received a new tile backsplash and complementary lighting,” Erdmier reported. “We had to do only a minimal amount of staging.”

Erdmier brought in a professional photographer to photograph the house. She then created both a video tour along with an illustrated brochure for prospective buyers that emphasized the home’s many custom touches and have the property wide exposure in the Internet. The eventual buyer was a woman who was relocating to the area to be near her son and his family.

“We received the buyer’s offer less than 50 days after putting the home on the market, and what helped sell it so quickly was a combination of its condition, its wonderful features and its location,” said Erdmier. “The buyer loved the house, and it put her right where she wanted to be.”

These three case studies point to several helpful principles for home sales efforts during the holidays, according to Merrion.

The first of those principles, according to Merrion, is to price the home aggressively enough so that buyers can’t resist at least looking at it.

The second principle is that the home should be in great condition so buyers can move in without doing any extra work. This is doubly important during the holidays, according to Merrion.

Third, he urges sellers to look for an agent who will maximize the visibility of the property in the market, for example by putting the listing on a high-traffic Web site, such as http://www.illinoisproperty.com.

“Marketing strategies are going to vary by the type of property, the price range and the market area, but during the holidays visibility is especially important because of the relatively limited number of buyers in the market,” he said.

Finally, Merrion said that sellers need to be flexible about showings.

“Many buyers in the market during the holidays must move on short notice. So making your home available to be seen may translate into a holiday sale.”

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