Flowers are blooming, the grass is getting greener, and sellers are rolling out the welcome mats for homebuyers—but in certain parts of the country, it’s a different story—and homeowners in the swing of selling season are making a few adjustments.
Forget the four seasons. In the Northeast and some parts out West, there’s also mud season—between March and May when spring kicks into full gear. That sets up sunshine, snow, and rain—creating a muddy mess.
In places like the New England states and West, like Colorado and Utah, the thawing ground creates a muddy mess. This why it’s a challenge for sellers to keep their homes in pristine, ready-to-show shape.
“Seasonality in our resort market is very real, and we approach it differently whether we’re speaking with a buyer or seller,” Ben Fisher, real estate broker and co-founder of Christie’s Park City, tells Realtor.com®. “For a seller, we typically recommend pausing a listing or holding off on coming to market until early June, when we start to see an uptick in visitor activity in the market.”
That advice this year, especially, can bode well. The economists at Realtor.com reviewed the listings and, last week, the number of homes for sale rose to the highest level since December 2019.
“At the same time, the typical home spent longer on the market and the median list price remained flat year over year,” says Jiayi Xu, Realtor.com economist. “Together, these trends point to a gradually improving environment for buyers this spring. However, high mortgage rates and ongoing affordability challenges continue to constrain purchasing power.”
(Realtor.com)
(Realtor.com)
Buying and selling tips
There are still deals to be had, though, if you fine-tune your research. For example, ski properties left unsold in the winter season could provide an opportunity if the seller is willing to negotiate.
“For buyers, we recommend approaching sellers that may have lingered through this slower period as we can sometimes find motivated sellers willing to make a deal during the slower shoulder season as some may get impatient during this time,” says Fisher.
He suggests making the offers because not all sellers are motivated to move.
“The buyers have to be willing to make offers and negotiate deals during this time to put in the work to find those sellers willing to deal,” says Fisher. “Those who target deals in the offseason can come away with potentially better pricing than if they waited for the summer months to pick back up again.”
It doesn’t mean sellers are going to lose money, but it’s about timing.
“Depending on the current market dynamics, we tell the sellers we represent to hold firm during this time unless they are on certain time constraints,” explains Fisher. “The market typically comes back, and by July, we have lots of buyer activity going on throughout the market.”
To stay up to date, Fisher and his team fine-tune their marketing strategy as the seasons change. This includes “reshooting photography and re-creating our materials around images and collateral that don’t have snow, which is fairly unique to our resort marketplace.”
Mud season can be a good time to find a deal before other buyers come back to the market.
“For resort markets, we live off of peak traffic seasons when visitors are on the ground and looking,” says Fisher. “Targeted, focused buyers can take advantage of the slow times if they’re willing to put in the time and work to find those motivated sellers who don’t want to wait out the slow months.”
