Surprising as it may seem, the holidays are the best time to sell a house, some real estate agents say.

"Houses look their prettiest at holiday time," said Noelle Barbone, an agent with Weichert Realtors on Philadelphia's Main Line. "A seller can focus on celebrating the holidays and primping the house for showing in a single effort."

Not only do houses look their best, but the people who look at them are real buyers.

"The holidays separate the serious buyers from those who are just looking," Barbone said. "If you have a house that is priced properly for your market, you'll like head into the new year with a signed agreement of sale."

There will be fewer appointments for agents to deal with, but they emphasize that this means the house to be shown has to look "extra good."

Tasteful outdoor lighting and decorations compensate for the difficulty of surrounding your house with blooming plants, flowers and trees in more northern parts of the country.

However, the warmer weather in the Northeast and Midwest in November and early December has left petunias, pansies and mums in full bloom, buds on trees and green lawns.

Keep clearing those dead leaves off the lawns. Earlier in the season, the multi-colored leaves, when ground up in volume, made a beautiful mulch. Now they just look dead -- the last thing a buyer, however motivated, wants to see.

The volume of holiday-season home buying continues to mystify Joanne Davidow, who sells houses for Prudential Fox & Roach in pricey downtown Philadelphia.

"I always take the first week of December off and usually end up doing more work then than I do at other times of the year," Davidow said.

This year has been particularly busy for Davidow, who focuses on selling houses and high-rise luxury condos of $1 million or more.

"People are motivated by low interest rates and fears that those rates might begin to rise after the first of the year," Davidow said.

A lot of buyers try to get into a house before the end of the year to take advantage of the tax benefits.

According to Barbone, the spring market starts Jan. 2 and ends in June. June tends to be a slow month for sales, and the greatest number of settlements occur in August, so that households can get settled before the children start school in September.

With inventory being so low in the holiday season, there are fewer choices for motivated buyers, which can push up prices of house on the market and sell places that might have languished for longer than a few weeks.

"When sellers ask me if they should take houses off the market at holiday time, I tell them no," Barbone said. "Then we figure out what we can do to make the house more attractive to buyers."

And when people put the houses on the market during the holidays, they are ready to sell, not simply testing the waters, she said. The services that buyers and sellers need for the transaction are a little easier to obtain at holiday time, though not on the actual day such as New Year's.

"In August, you are competing with others for movers, lawyers and title companies, all of whom are typically booked well in advance," Barbone said. "During the holidays, these people still need to earn a living, and you can usually find someone, except on the last day of the month."

No matter what month it is, the last day of the month is usually loaded with settlements.

While January usually is the start of the season for corporate relocations, a lot of employees are hunting for houses at holiday times.

Gary G. Schaal, vice president of Orleans Homebuilders in suburban Philadelphia, said that most people take the week off between Christmas and New Year's and the children have off from school.

"What better time is there to look at what is available, especially if you have to fly far from your present home to look," Schaal said.

Holiday house hunting on this scale has become a phenomenon only in the last five years, he said.

"We decorate models on selected sites for the season," he said. "We also offer holiday incentives in which buyers can save between $1,000 and $5,000."

The holidays themselves may be a reason why people look for houses at this time of the year.

"They'll see how cramped the house is with presents and a tree and decide it is time to get a new one," Schaal said.

For more articles by Al Heavens, please press here.

Published: December 13, 2001

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Al Heavens writes about real estate and home repair and improvement. He is the author of What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home: Real-Life Advice For Hassle-free, Cost-Effective Remodeling.