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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

Where I'm pulling the data: REIN MLS

Thanksgiving 2021 Example

Christmas 2021 Example

Other Holidays

Exceptions & How You Can Be Assisted with Urgent Matters


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!


Related:

Adam's Hours

Adam's Sunday Policy


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