Pip Haxby-Thompson
The JFKLiving Team
Ask most homeowners when the best time to sell is, and you’ll probably hear the same answer: spring.
They wouldn’t be entirely wrong: spring traditionally brings a surge of buyers into the South Jersey market. The weather improves, homes photograph beautifully, families start planning moves before the next school year, and buyer activity ramps up.
But there’s one fairly important detail sellers tend to overlook: spring doesn’t just bring more buyers. It brings more sellers, too.
At The JFKLiving Team, some of our most competitive sales have actually happened earlier, in January and February.
More Buyers Doesn’t Always Mean a Better Seller’s Market
Imagine 100 buyers searching for 50 available homes. Now imagine 50 buyers searching for just 10.
Which market would you rather sell into?
Seller opportunity isn’t determined by buyer activity alone; it’s the relationship between the number of serious buyers and the number of homes available to them.
By peak spring market, Haddon Township and Collingswood may have significantly more buyers searching, but those buyers also have more new listings competing for their attention.
January and February can create a very different dynamic. Many would-be spring sellers are still preparing their homes, waiting for warmer weather or simply assuming nobody buys houses in winter. The buyers, inconveniently, don’t always wait.
Serious Buyers Start Earlier Than You Think
Once the holidays are over, something happens: people who said they’d start looking “in the spring” get antsy. Zillow gets opened. Alerts get switched on. Open houses start looking suspiciously appealing on a Sunday afternoon.
Some buyers have leases ending. Some want to be settled before summer. Some have been searching for months already.
And when the right home appears, they’re ready.
We’ve seen the impact firsthand.
In January 2025, Pip Haxby-Thompson listed 224 Morgan Ave in Collingswood for $425,000. A small—albeit renovated—bungalow with just two bedrooms, and a smidge over 1,000 square feet.
We gave the home the typical JFKLiving experience: Zillow Showcase Listing, engaging video tour (which got 70,000 views), and mailing the neighborhood. Around 25 showings followed, multiple offers created a bidding war, and the home was on the market for just two days. It ultimately sold for $485,000: $60,000 above asking.
Then, in February 2026, we listed 153 New Jersey Ave in Collingswood for $399,000. We had the property expertly staged to position it as a premium product, complemented by a perfectly timed marketing campaign.
Nine offers came in. Every single one was above asking. The winning offer was $455,000, another 14% above list price. For a twin—with a shared driveway!
That’s not an absence of buyers; if anything, the absence was on the other side of the equation: there simply weren’t enough desirable homes for those buyers to choose from.
Scarcity Can Be a Seller’s Best Friend
When a well-prepared, strategically priced home launches into a market where motivated buyers have limited alternatives, it can quickly become the property everyone is talking about.
And we know competition changes buyer behavior: if someone likes your home but knows there are five similar properties available, they have options. If yours is one of the only homes meeting their needs, suddenly waiting to see what happens feels considerably riskier.
That urgency can translate into multiple offers, higher prices and stronger terms.
Does listing in January guarantee a bidding war? Absolutely not. If real estate were that cooperative, our jobs would be considerably easier.
Every property, seller, and market is different. Pricing, condition, location, marketing, interest rates, and broader inventory levels all matter.
But the assumption that you should wait for April or May could mean overlooking a valuable window of opportunity, as many of our sellers have discovered.
Want to Sell in January? Start in the Fall
Here’s the other misconception: deciding to list in January doesn’t mean calling your agent on January 2.
A strong winter launch starts months earlier.
Fall gives you (and your agent) time to assess the property, make strategic repairs, declutter, plan staging, understand your likely price range, and prepare the marketing before your home ever reaches the market.
Then January arrives, and instead of beginning the process, you’re ready to capitalize on whatever the market is giving you.
Spring can absolutely be an excellent time to sell. But the best time isn’t necessarily the month with the most buyers.
It’s the moment when your home has the most leverage.
And in Haddon Township and Collingswood, that moment might arrive a lot earlier than you think.
Thinking About Selling Next Spring?
Don’t wait to start planning. Pip’s 2027 calendar is already beginning to fill with savvy sellers getting ahead of the market.
If you want the full JFKLiving listing experience, from strategic timing and preparation to staging and marketing, reach out now at philip@jfkliving.com to secure your place on Pip’s 2027 schedule.
