(Hint: if your ‘agent’ is MIA then it might be time to find a new one)

Ready or not, the holiday season is here! It’s time to trim the turkey, deck the halls, light your Menorah and celebrate the season with friends and family. It might also be time to buy or sell a home.

Say What?

Historically, the period from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day is the slowest 5 weeks in our real estate market. Slowest, however, does not mean non-existent. In fact, a surprisingly large number of houses are listed and go under contract during this period.

As the chart above shows, during the period of November 23, 2021 – January 1, 2022 (just before Thanksgiving to after News Year Day) 2,035 properties were listed in the DC metro area (DC, MoCo, Arlington and Alexandria) and 2,252 properties went under contract during that same time period.

During the “slowest week in real estate” which is Christmas Eve to New Years Day, 279 (TWO HUNDRED AND Seventy Nine!!!) properties went under contract in our area.

WOW! That is a lot of real estate for the ‘slowest season’ and ‘slowest week’

Now what is also true during this time is that plenty of people head out of town on vacation and to visit family. In fact, AAA routinely reports that close to 50 million people plan to travel during the week of Thanksgiving and again during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

It is to be expected then that plenty of real estate agents will be on vacation or visiting family during this period as well. So, what happens when YOUR agent skips town for two weeks? Did they leave without telling you, hoping that you wouldn’t need them? Are your calls going straight to voicemail? Who is marketing YOUR listing? What if YOUR dream home comes on the market and you want to see it and make an offer ASAP?  

We can’t tell you the number of times we’ve seen frantic posts on real estate agent message boards that say “Help! Please show my client a house” or “Help! I am on vacation and a buyer wants to tour my listing” during the holidays. These scenarios rarely end well for those buyers and sellers, unfortunately.

There is a better way, of course.

The Stokes Group is a dedicated full time real estate team who understand that real estate happens even during the holidays. We’ve structured our holiday calendar to ensure that a licensed member of our team is fully available for showings, offer presentations and contract negotiations every single day during the holiday season. Keep our number, 202.688.0111, handy because The Stokes Group has you covered!

We are here for you during this time so don’t let an MIA agent get in the way of you selling your home or you buying your dream home this holiday season.

Call or contact us anytime; we are here to help YOU!