The Case for Taking Off On Christmas & Thanksgiving for Realtors
I've been asked before if I am willing to work on holidays. For some holidays, I am, but that's not always the case. For instance, I always take off on Christmas & Thanksgiving & always spend them with my wife and some of our family. In fact, an agent working all holidays and never taking vacations is actually hurting their own business & the clients that they serve due to the positive impact of rest, including holidays, on their work (1,2,3). In fact, I would argue that due to extremely low volume of listings input on Christmas Day last year (0 in REIN MLS), it was the best day of the year that an agent could take off.
According to surveys, Christmas & Thanksgiving are the most popular holidays in America.
Image courtesy Statista.
Before I get into the details, I'd like to share a selection from Muppet's Christmas Carol on the subject in case you've never seen or it would like a refresher. In it, Kermit pleads with Scrooge about taking Christmas Day off for himself and the other workers:
While Sundays have the least new listings on a typical week, with Saturdays having more than Sundays but still much less than Monday-Friday, major federal holidays can have even fewer listings input into MLS.
To dive into the details including what it means for buyers and sellers, the data, & more, see below:
What it Means for Buyers
For buyers, the few listings input on holidays mean that the likelihood of a property coming on the market on a major holiday that's within their desired criteria is much lower than a typical day. As with Sundays, the accuracy of MLS will also be much worse on federal holidays than it would be on a typical Monday-Friday. Many agents, myself included, don't have MLS input rights, and rely on others at our firms who have MLS input rights who only work Monday-Friday, excluding holidays.
The best approach to staying on top of listings as they hit the market is to get a search set up with emails and texts going to the buyer as properties hit the market, with at least 1 search with their Realtor & at least 1 search for the low number of properties that are for sale by owner listings or if their Realtor doesn't have >99% MLS coverage of everywhere they're looking. The most common scenario for a buyer to reach out on a federal holiday about a showing is if they don't stay on top of the feed of properties as they hit the market. The best listings tend to go the fastest, so it's critical to stay on top of these. On federal holidays and weekends, a listing that came on the market a few days before is more likely to be under contract than on typical days since many agents, myself included, don't have MLS input rights, and rely on those who do who work 9-5 Monday-Friday excluding federal holidays.
What it Means for Sellers
For sellers, since so many agents are taking the day off, if you were to input a listing into MLS that day, the amount of showing volume you'd get would be reduced, and lower showing volume on day one of a property hitting the market is very bad business. The timing of when you list is very important to allow for plenty of showings in a short amount of time. The more showings, the more offers are probable & the more offers, the higher the net that the seller will tend to receive.
Where I'm pulling the data: REIN MLS
In case you're unfamiliar, an "MLS" is a multiple listing service, the main place where real estate input properties into the market. There are many MLS throughout the United States.
Image courtesy https://www.nar.realtor/mls-map-of-the-national-association-of-realtors
In SE VA, here are the ones that I have access to:
REIN standards for Real Estate Information Network. Here are the cities/counties where REIN MLS, based out of Virginia Beach, is dominant:
From the MLS, those listings typically get auto-populated onto hundreds of other websites that have feeds from the MLS. Agents typically have searches going with buyers that they work with via their MLS to give them a direct feed of properties. and there are a number of them across the country. In Hampton Roads, VA, the main MLS is REIN, which is where I'll be pulling my data from below.
Thanksgiving 2021 Example
Thanksgiving is the most popular holiday in America. Here's a search for Thanksgiving Day, 2021 showing that the number of entries in the Thursday prior and the following Thursday were both greater than 21 times more entries than on Thanksgiving Day.
That day there were 7 new MLS entries in REIN MLS:
Image courtesy https://reinmls.mlsmatrix.com/Matrix
It's important to compare apples to apples, and the days of the week vary as far as how many properties hit the market (i.e. typically the fewest by far on Sundays), so it's best to compare to other Thursdays in the case of Thanksgiving since Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday.
The same day (Thursday) of the prior week had 150 new entries:
Image courtesy https://reinmls.mlsmatrix.com/Matrix
The same day (Thursday) of the following week had 152 new entries:
Image courtesy https://reinmls.mlsmatrix.com/Matrix
Christmas 2021 Example
Christmas 2021 has a double whammy of both being the 2nd most popular holiday in America & being on a Saturday. While Sundays have the least new homes listed, Saturdays still have far fewer listings than any day Monday-Friday. In fact, in 2021, no new listings were input into REIN MLS.
Other Holidays
Here is a list of the federal holidays in Virginia with the number of listings on that day. When a holiday falls on a weekend, the federal holiday is the nearest Monday or Friday. These dates can change over time. The more popular the celebration of the holiday, the lower the volume of new listings during that day, and it's even less listings if the holiday itself falls on a weekend. Also, the market tends to have less new listings in the Winter than in the Summer & Spring. As you'll see, the least new listings are on Thanksgiving & Christmas, the most popular holidays in America.
In 2021, the federal holidays in Virginia included:
January 1 (Friday) 26 new listings
January 18 (Monday) 113 new listings
February 15 (Monday) (103 new listings)
May 31 (Monday) (21 new listings)
June 18 (Friday) (303 new listings)
Actual holiday date of June 19 (Saturday) (39 new listings)
July 5 (Monday) (40 new listings)
Actual holiday date of July 4 (Sunday) (15 new listings)
September 6 (Monday) (16 new listings)
October 11 (Monday) (73 new listings)
November 11 (Thursday) (137 new listings)
November 25 (Thursday) (7 new listings)
December 24 (Friday) (8 new listings)
Actual holiday date of December 25 (Saturday) (0 new listings)
Exceptions & How You Can Be Assisted with Urgent Matters
Here are more details on my Sunday policy including exceptions & how I can arrange agent fill ins from my company if needed. While geared towards Sundays, many of the same exceptions, fill in info from other agents, and other information will apply. That said, agent fill in availability on main holidays is even less than on Sundays, while if you're inquiring about a non-holiday, it should be much easier to find a fill in.
Also, if I am available at all on a day like Christmas or Thanksgiving for business, it will typically be earlier on in the day. For instance, this article was published on Thanksgiving morning.
With all that said, I hope it provides better context for my reasons to take off on Christmas, Thanksgiving, & certain other periods of vacation. Happy Thanksgiving!
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