3 Reasons Why Winter is an Ideal Season for Real Estate Marketing

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We are in the thick of the winter season. While it may be a tricky time of the year to sell real estate, there is no reason why real estate agents should halt their marketing efforts during the coldest months of the year. There are a variety of marketing strategies that real estate agents can use to reach more clients throughout the winter season. With this, keep reading and discover a few reasons why winter is an ideal season for real estate marketing.

Chance to stand out

Many people are afraid to list their home for sale during the winter. However, this does not mean that real estate professionals should kick back and wait until spring arrives to hone in on their marketing strategies. Because real estate is typically slower during the winter, it is a great time of the year for real estate agents to at least plan out their marketing plans for when their markets heat back up again. This can be a great way to gain a leg up on the competition.

There are untapped leads during winter

Real estate leads come throughout the entire year. This is why you should never stop marketing and connect with clients. The winter season can be an excellent time of the year to touch base with former clients. A quick phone call or personalized greeting card can go a long way in reminding former clients who you are in the industry. Even if they have no plans of buying or selling, they may refer you to their friends or family members.

Strengthens brand image

One of the best ways to create strong brand awareness is to maintain an active digital marketing presence. People will remember who you are if they see you on social media, advertisements, videos, and other platforms.

HUD Foreclosures

HUD foreclosures and VA Foreclosures are some of the best homes to buy when price is part of the equation. As with most Americans, price is always a concern. If not buying the same house for less, why not buy more house for the same dollar invested? When looking for a good deal it is hard to do better than the VA or HUD foreclosures market. The simple truth is that there are just more VA and HUD homes on the market, as they represent such a large number of mortgages that are generated each year. This translates into more foreclosures just by the magnitude of difference between all others comparing to the two largest.

The two largest also being government owned and operated means that they have less time to wait to make money back on the home. The FHA is especially known for selling HUD homes for less than the average sales price in a given area. FHA foreclosures represent a fraction of HUD but they are still a significant number of homes and both should be considered.

VA (Veterans Administration) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) have different and unique opportunities for the buyer. Both are often forgiven for the local taxes normally associated with the purchase of a home (this is on a county by county basis). Be sure to ask the local title company or escrow company to look into it for you before closing as this is often missed due to their are not used to dealing with the 2 to 3 percent of the market that VA and HUD foreclosures represent.

Foreclosure Listings Increasing

As the market settled after the mortgage meltdown foreclosure listings also settled and fewer homes were on the market with a placard reading “Bank Foreclosure” in big red lettering. This was a good thing for the entire real estate market. Having an abundance of foreclosures brings the entire market down and it makes it harder for home owners, who would like to move, to get the appropriate price for their home as a similar home down the same street was sold for substantially less and the appraiser is using the foreclosure as a comparable sale.

This is just one of the problems when there are too many foreclosure listings in any area. Another issue is the television set that sits in everyone’s living room harping about the price of homes based on the number of foreclosures and this constant barrage of negative information makes most people sit on the sidelines waiting for the market to either implode completely or to correct itself. Meanwhile while they wait, others are buying foreclosure listings and making great investments.

Whatever the reason, a market can only handle so many foreclosure listings at any given time. The more foreclosures, the lower the market gets and this is a lesson the banks that were foreclosing and selling off realized too late. The market and their investments would have been better off if there had not been a rush to divest themselves of the toxic assets made more toxic by their own actions.