What are the best sales days for real estate investing during the fourth quarter?
Was all of the chaos in the last quarter really conducive to real estate investing? If so, what can we learn and what days do we need to consider for the final quarter of 2013?
While summer is often considered peak season in the national housing market, there is a surprising amount of business to do in the last three months of the year. Those that will enjoy the biggest turkeys this Christmas, and roll into the New Year with sacks of cash, will be the ones that recognize the optimal days and plan accordingly.
So when should you be prepared to get busy, when should you plan your own vacation, and what can you do now to ensure your success in 2014?
Real Estate Investing this Quarter
Halloween represents the first great marketing day for the final quarter in 2013. The holiday comes complete with seasonally low prices and highly motivated sellers. For those interested in real estate investing, this is an incredible time for making acquisitions, wholesaling and selling homes.
On the heels of Halloween comes the biggest sales weekend of the year. This runs from Black Friday to Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Trends suggest these deals will start earlier and last longer every year. You don’t have to have a retail storefront or a digital product to capitalize on these days either. It’s easy to capitalize on the surge in foot, car and web traffic with a little in context marketing. Take advantage of the masses that are out and about, ready to shop.
Many real estate industry professionals write off the last two weeks of December. Between vacations, shopping distractions and epic chaos at mortgage lenders and title companies, it can be an extremely stressful and infuriating time to try and close any business.
Surprisingly, however, this is one of the busy periods of the year for real estate investing. Everyone wants to close before the end of the year. Many as holiday gifts, others to utilize year end company bonuses and many to minimize their tax liabilities. This year is set to be even more insane, as the Mortgage Forgiveness Act and its benefits for short sales expires.
It can be an incredibly profitable time for investing in real estate on all fronts, especially among luxury properties.
The Key to Winning in Q4
However, as any experienced real estate investor will tell you, the last couple weeks of the year are an incredibly tough time for trying to win cold business. Everyone is insanely busy, and unless they need to close before the end of the year, they don’t even want to think about it until after the first part of January. However, this is where the real real estate investing pros distinguish themselves. They aren’t attempting one call closes with cold prospects or new strategic partners; they know the best strategy is to simply line up appointments for the New Year.
Wherever you are focusing on investing in real estate, whether San Diego, CA or New Haven, CT, the key to coming out on top is advanced planning and knowing how to throttle marketing.
Ideally, you’ll find a way to automate your lead generation and appointment setting. Put someone else on transaction management while you take December 15th through January 1st to relax, recharge and prepare to walk into the New Year with a packed pipeline of fresh deals.
