Selling or buying a house during the holidays? What you need to know.

Fiances Joe Fodera and Louis Lasala wanted to downsize, so they put their Wantagh home on the market last December for $675,000.

Fodera, 31, a hairdresser, initially thought it would be too stressful to decorate their home for the holidays. But he thinks the décor — which included holiday table settings and artfully placed touches like gold tabletop trees — helped seal the deal.

“The amount of compliments we got, I think that was part of the appeal and I think ultimately what sold the house,” said Fodera, adding that one of the comments came from a family at an open house who ended up purchasing the home.

“I was satisfied with the traffic the house drew during the holidays and it went for the price I wanted,” said Lasala, 42, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Bayside. The four-bed, two-bath expanded Levitt ranch sold for $650,000.

With all the items already on your to-do list between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, putting your home up for sale — or keeping it on the market — might seem like the last thing you want to deal with. But with housing inventory continuing to trend low, experts suggest that this might be the ideal time to add a “For Sale” sign to your holiday decorations.

Should you put your home on the market during the holidays?

The amount of compliments we got, I think that was part of the appeal and I think ultimately what sold the house.

— Joe Fodera

The decision to list a house during the holidays can be a boon to sellers and buyers, each of whom may have specific reasons for why they need to move now. Milagros Billitzer, an agent with Coldwell Banker American Homes in Long Beach, said there are many family situations where people must sell quickly, like a relocation for a job, a death, divorce or marriage, and the same can be said of the buyer who may be equally motivated.

“Traditionally there are fewer buyers this time of year, but there’s a whole demographic who are very serious,” said Debra Russell, a real estate salesperson with Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty in Cold Spring Harbor. “This is also a time when people who are thinking about starting 2024 in a new area or neighborhood will be out looking.”

In the past, homeowners might not have wanted to worry about the hassles of open houses and showings during the holidays, Russell said. But “since COVID, everything’s changed. People are more immediate because they know anything can happen. So if they know this is something they want to do, they jump in.”

Listing your home now can also be to your advantage as it gets you ahead of everybody else, added Russell. She is working with a seller in Huntington who just listed a home to take advantage of the strong market now, rather than wait until spring.

Another positive note to sellers is that yours would likely be one of the limited homes on the market, added Matthew Chiarelli, 44, a licensed real estate salesperson at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Franklin Square.

Meanwhile, there are buyers on Long Island who may want to get into the market before interest rates — now at 7.76% — potentially increase further, said Billitzer. Some are trying to buy by the end of 2023 for tax purposes, said Kimberly Cammarata, a licensed associate real estate broker at Douglas Elliman West Hampton Beach.

Russell said she anticipates similar activity this year. Here’s a shopping list of tips to help if you decide to jump into the action.

Selling during the holidays? Here’s what to do.

The market is so strong that if you strategically plan it and if you’re priced correctly, you can be in and out of the market in a matter of weeks.

— Debra Russell

Price it right. Price your house to attract buyers, no matter what time of year it is, said Kristina Cardoza, an agent from Compass Realty in Manorville, who recently moved to Florida.

“A lot of people make the mistake of overpricing and it doesn’t get the activity they want and then a few weeks later we have to do a price reduction,” she said. “And then buyers question, ‘what happened there?’ So just price it right from just out the gate and you’ll get the number you want.”

Make it work for your schedule. The idea of dealing with open houses and last-minute showings during the holidays might be stressful, but Russell said you can adjust those appointments to your lifestyle. Besides, it shouldn’t last long.

“The market is so strong that if you strategically plan it and if you’re priced correctly, you can be in and out of the market in a matter of weeks,” she said.

Get ready. Russell…