Jennifer Egbert, RE/MAX Alliance
As soon as the weather starts heating up – starting in about June and lasting through September – the housing market is at its peak. This is traditionally because families with children want to get settled into a new home before the start of the school year, but the same logic applies to selling a vacation home. With ski resorts closed, school out, and the Colorado sunshine in full swing, it’s a great time of year to attract motivated buyers and sell a vacation home. Here’s why:
Attract summer visitors
November through April is when Colorado mountain towns see their biggest tourism boom, thanks to skiers, snowboarders, and visitors enjoying the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. The thought of purchasing a vacation home may cross their minds, but these action-packed ski vacations can leave little time to devote to the real estate market. Once they return home, however, the idea of buying into this lifestyle comes to fruition. When people can return to Colorado – often in the spring or summer – they start seriously looking for the home that really suits them and their lifestyle. These trips are usually slower-paced, allowing vacationers the time and energy to become buyers.
Getting your property on the market in early summer, say June, allows you to take advantage of the large number of summer visitors. June can be a slower month, depending on the weather and the density of the winter’s snow. By listing in the early spring or summer, you’ll expose your property to motivated summer visitors.
Less competition
Inventory also plays a huge role in spring and summer’s advantageousness. Competition is still low in the early spring. In Summit County, for example, the typical real estate market has lower levels of inventory during the winter months and more properties for sale in the summer months. Starting in mid-April, when most ski areas close, sellers start putting their properties on the market and inventory begins to build. The earlier you list your property, the more likely you’ll beat out the competition.
Warm weather
Nobody likes trudging through snow to see a property, even if it is in a mountain paradise. Spring and summer weather in the mountains is ideal, hovering around in the 70s and 80s. Buyers will also be drawn to the year-round beauty of their future mountain home. Snow can happen as early as late June or July, so by listing earlier, you are avoiding the possibility of bad weather driving away potential buyers.
By Jennifer Egbert, RE/MAX Alliance Downtown Boulder. Jennifer Egbert is a Realtor at RE/MAX Alliance Downtown in Boulder and specializes in Luxury neighborhoods, home builders and current market conditions. To learn more about the Boulder real estate market, visit jenniferegbert.com, e-mail [email protected] or call 303.619.3373.
