UPGRADE WITH LIBERTAS & EXP REALTY
By Tim & Julie Harris · September 10, 2026
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Last December, about 113,000 homes came off the market. Not sold. Pulled. Their owners gave up, took the sign down, and told themselves they'd try again in the spring. In January, roughly half of them came back on the market — the highest January comeback share since 2016.
And here's the only question that actually matters about those 113,000 homes: whose sign was in the yard the SECOND time around? For a meaningful chunk of them, the answer wasn't the original listing agent.
Somebody else was sitting in the seller's kitchen in December while the original agent was at holiday parties. Somebody else made the calls in November while the competition was already checking out for the year.
You have exactly 16 weeks left until New Year's Eve. Deals written today can still comfortably close in 2026. Deals written past mid-November are stacking your 2027 Q1.
Today we walk through the specific playbook for the listings agents lose between now and January — the "let's wait until spring" objection handler, the re-qualification script for the wavering seller, the tactical mistake most agents make when a seller insists on pulling the sign, and the specific reason your competition is about to hand you a leverage window that shows up once a year.
Why winter buyers are the most motivated buyers of the year
You cannot handle the "wait until spring" objection effectively without knowing the base rate on Q4 buyer motivation. The consumer preference does NOT match the seller assumption.
Who's actually shopping in November, December, and January?
REO and bank-owned buyers with year-end occupancy targets tied to fiscal reporting cycles.
Corporate relocation buyers with January or February start dates.
New-construction closing buyers whose builders are closing this quarter and need to be somewhere.
Cash investors hunting motivated sellers who've been sitting all summer.
Deadline-driven life-event buyers — divorce, inheritance, job change, medical, or family situations forcing a move.
Buyers who spent all spring and summer shopping and finally can't wait any longer.
Common thread — every one of them needs to buy. They aren't browsing. They aren't waiting for the perfect Instagram photos. They aren't going to fifteen open houses. Fewer showings, dramatically higher-quality showings.
In Tim and Julie's selling years, the best REO clients would fly in for a single weekend, look at maybe five houses, pick one on Sunday morning, and be under contract by Sunday afternoon. No inspection contingency drama. Financing already in place. Not contingent on home sale. These are structurally the best transactions of the year.
The "wait until spring" objection — the professional response
Here's the specific handler. Seller (or expired-listing prospect) says:
"We're going to take the house off the market until spring."
Do NOT accept it at face value. Respond:
"Mr. Seller, that's completely understandable — you'd like to enjoy the holidays without worrying about showings. Can I share a couple things I've learned about winter selling before you decide? Most people assume the market goes to sleep in Q4. What actually happens is casual buyers stop shopping — the ones just kicking tires. The buyers who stay in the market are the ones who need to buy. REO, corporate relocation, new-construction closings, deadline-driven life events. The showing volume goes down. The quality of each showing goes way up. And because most other sellers are pulling their homes off exactly like you're considering, your house has dramatically less competition. Would it be worth staying on the market through year-end with reduced showing hours, or would you still prefer to suspend?"
A meaningful percentage of sellers stay listed when they hear that framing for the first time. Many of them didn't know winter buyers existed as a category.
If the seller still insists — do it right
Some sellers will remain resolute. "We just want to enjoy the holidays. Take the sign down." Respect their decision, but manage the mechanics correctly.
The critical tactical move: DO NOT let it show up as an expired or withdrawn listing.
Instead, temporarily suspend showings or take the house off active status but keep the listing agreement in place with the plan for it to relist as new inventory when the seller is ready. Then treat the relist as a new listing entry.
Why this matters. In markets with active expired-listing prospectors, any listing that flips to "expired" or "withdrawn" status generates immediate outbound contact from every agent chasing that pipeline. Your seller will be inundated with mail, phone calls, door-knocks, and postcards from your competitors — starting the day the status changes. Many of those competitors will position themselves as the agent who knows what the original agent did wrong.
Result if you don't manage this correctly: the seller you fought to keep engaged all summer becomes the next listing on another agent's board in February.
Better approach: suspend showings, stay in weekly communication through the holidays, and relist as new inventory in January with fresh photos and refreshed strategy. You keep the client. The pipeline of chasers never sees it as expired.
Constant motivation re-qualification — the professional discipline
Related principle from the 180-Day Seller Communication Plan. Seller motivation is not a static input. It changes constantly. Your job is to re-qualify it every 2-3 weeks throughout the listing.
Concrete example — the new-construction scenario. Your seller is building a new home. Original expected completion: March. They've decided to pull the listing until spring.
"Mr. Seller, can I tell you what concerns me for you about that plan? Your new house is scheduled for March completion. If we relist January 15th and the average days on market in your neighborhood is 90-plus days, the math doesn't line up. You'd close on the new house before this one is even under contract. Are you prepared for two mortgage payments through spring? Because if the answer is 'no,' we probably shouldn't take this house off the market at all — we should stay listed and use the winter buyer window."
That single conversation converts a meaningful percentage of "pull it" sellers back into "keep it on" sellers. Because you exposed a constraint they hadn't thought through.
The "what does spring mean to you?" script
Related question. When a seller (or expired prospect) says "we're relisting in spring," don't accept the vague timeline. Dig in.
"Spring — that makes sense. Can I ask what spring means to you? Some people mean February, some mean April."
Almost every seller has a specific date they haven't shared. Once they name it, walk them through the same math above — average days on market plus close time — against whatever life event is driving the sale on the other end.
Real coaching-call example: seller said "spring." When pressed, spring meant February 1st. Why? Because she was relocating to Guam with the military in May. The gap between listing date and Guam departure was four months, in a market averaging 5+ months to sell.
The listing agent's response: "Mr. Seller, I don't know if you've thought about it this way, but if we relist February 1st in a market averaging 5 months to sell, you'd potentially still be listed when you're supposed to be on a flight to Guam. Would you be okay moving before the house sells?"
Motivation surfaces immediately. Almost every seller reframes their plan when confronted with the actual math against their actual timeline.
The Chesterville lesson — prepare sellers for fast AND slow
Coaching-call story from Tim and Julie's selling years. They sold a strange lake house in Chesterville — one of those idiosyncratic properties they expected would take months. It sold the first weekend, at full price, at what became the highest sale price in the town's history.
The sellers were furious. Why? Because they were mentally prepared for a slow sale. They wanted the summer at the lake house. They hadn't started looking for their next place. Getting a fast full-price offer that Monday completely disrupted their plans.
Lesson permanently installed in the Tim & Julie listing presentation from that day forward.
"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, our goal is to sell your home as quickly as possible, for the highest price, with the least hassle to you. Let me walk you through two scenarios:
If it sells this weekend — which does happen — where are you going next? Are you ready to move quickly, or would that create a problem?
If it takes the average 120 days — which is more typical in this market — what does that timeline do to your plans? Are you prepared to carry the home through the winter if needed?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is 'ecstatic' and 1 is 'not at all,' how happy would you be if I called you Monday with a full-price cash offer?"
When the seller says 7 or 8 instead of 10, the follow-up is: "What would make it a 10?" — and the actual constraint on their motivation comes out immediately.
Set the days-on-market expectation properly on day one
Related. Most sellers in your market currently expect their home to sell in 30 days or less because that was the pattern in 2020-2022. Many markets are now averaging 90-120 days to contract, plus 30-45 days to close — a total 120-165 day cycle from list to keys.
If you don't set that expectation on day one, the seller will be furious at day 45, contemplating firing you at day 75, and mailing your name off the sign at day 100. All entirely preventable with a clear pre-listing conversation about realistic market timelines.
Include in every listing appointment: the current average days on market for the specific property type at the specific price band in the specific neighborhood — not the town-level average, not the metro average. The right number for their exact situation. Combined with the fast/slow scenario walk-through above, this becomes the single most important expectation-setting move of the listing appointment.
The competitor hibernation window — your Q4 leverage
Now the reason all of this matters more in Q4 than any other quarter.
Most of your competition is about to check out. Watch the parking lot at any brick-and-mortar office (if you still have one in your market — many are virtual now, but the pattern is the same regardless): from Halloween through the second week of January, most agents disappear.
They stop prospecting.
They stop working expireds.
They stop calling their sphere.
They stop preparing for listing appointments.
They stop attending industry events.
They tell themselves they'll "restart" on January 1st.
Which means for approximately 10 weeks — Halloween through mid-January — the noise level in your market drops dramatically. The agents still working are extraordinarily visible by comparison.
This is a once-a-year leverage window. Every hour of prospecting during this stretch is worth 3-5 hours during peak-competition months. Every listing appointment you take when your competitors aren't taking any converts at a higher rate. Every expired call gets returned because the seller isn't buried in twenty other pitches.
What to do during the hibernation window
Concrete list:
Expired and withdrawn listings. Contact them systematically — phone first, mail second, door-knock third. Use the "yet-to-be-sold" language from last week's playbook.
FSBOs. Same energy. Most FSBOs by December are exhausted and quietly looking for professional help without wanting to admit it.
Sphere of influence. Every past client. Every past-client birthday, anniversary, and holiday touch. Every referral partner you should have called in Q3 and didn't.
Center-of-influence contacts. Attorneys, CPAs, lenders, contractors, insurance agents, financial planners. Reset your relationship going into the new year.
Community environments where you are already known — church, synagogue, mosque, gym, cooking club, kids' sports, neighborhood association. Be present. Be interested in other people. Don't be a secret agent.
Complete your 2027 Real Plan — including your annual overhead, your homes-required number, and your Real Estate Magic Number of active listings needed. Available inside Premier Coaching.
The Real Plan is the anchor for all of this
Related tool. The Real Plan — Premier Coaching's comprehensive 2027 business + life planning interactive — is designed for exactly this window. Roughly 20-30 minutes to complete. Generates a personalized business and life plan you can print, revise, and use as your operating document all year.
Life vision at 5 and 10 years.
The four-burner audit (business, health, personal, spiritual/creative).
Full expense categorization.
Income requirement math.
Annual homes-required calculation.
The Real Estate Magic Number for your specific situation.
Business plan derived from the life plan — not the other way around.
$1 for 7-day Premier Coaching trial at premiercoaching.com. Money back if you cancel. All 13 levels available immediately, plus the Real Plan, the 180-Day Seller Communication Plan, the 10 Listings in 90 Days plan, the AI Business Lab, and the ultimate open house guide.
What to do this week
Five concrete moves:
One — pull your active listing roster. For each active listing, note the seller's stated motivation, the last time you re-qualified it, and the timeline math against any life event on the other end. Anywhere the math doesn't work, book a re-qualification conversation this week.
Two — install the fast/slow scenario walk-through into your standard listing presentation. Every new listing appointment gets both scenarios and the 1-to-10 scale question from now on.
Three — pre-plan the "wait until spring" response. Rehearse the script above verbatim. You will hear the objection multiple times over the next 60 days. Being fluent when it comes up separates the professional from the amateur.
Four — pull the expired and withdrawn listings in your market from the past 60 days. Start systematic outbound contact this week. Q4 is the highest-yield window of the year for expireds.
Five — complete your 2027 Real Plan if you haven't. Know your actual number of listings required, and start closing the gap between what you have and what you need through the hibernation window.
The bottom line
Somewhere in your market this December, roughly 1-2% of active listings will come off the market with a story their seller has been telling themselves all summer. "We'll relist in spring. The market will be better then. Nothing sells during the holidays."
Approximately half of those sellers will list again in January or February. Some will list with the original agent. Many will list with someone new — someone who was in their kitchen in November, in their inbox in December, and on their calendar in early January while the original agent was still on holiday break.
You have 16 weeks. The listings you win in that window are the ones that fund your entire 2027. Your competition is about to hand you the biggest leverage window of the calendar year. Take it.
Get to work.
Ready to stop guessing and start producing?
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If you worked the next 16 weeks the way top producers do — installed the fast/slow listing presentation, re-qualified every active seller's motivation, ran the "wait until spring" handler on every wavering seller, and systematically worked the expired pipeline while your competitors checked out — how many of the 113,000 December pull-offs in your market would be YOUR listings the second time around?
— Tim & Julie Harris
Founders of Tim & Julie Harris Real Estate Coaching | Publishers of Harris Real Estate Daily | Hosts of PowerHouseTalk | eXp Realty Sponsors at Libertas
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