Uh-oh. It’s another one of those warning articles to help you ward off impending homeowner doom. Sometimes, however, it’s wise to sit up and take notice. By doom, we mean replacing your furnace before it stops providing you with life-sustaining warmth and as a result, finds you walking around your house in a ski jacket and thermal socks.

No matter which direction you turn, something disturbing is happening regarding extreme weather. Tales of droughts, hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, earthquakes, and tornadoes headline the news. The damage from these disasters is impossible to ignore.

The holiday season is not a time many homeowners looking to sell would want to list their homes — first because traditional wisdom says springtime is best, and secondly because it’s a pain to show a home when it’s family and party time.

But December 2020 is different, with social time being curbed or nonexistent, homes being sold through Zoom calls and virtual tours, and fewer buyers taking walk-through tours because of the pandemic. So this might be the IDEAL time to sell while keeping your sanity over the holidays!

In a normal year, this is the time when home sales dip. In a normal year, this is when you can negotiate on getting the price a tad lower, and homes sit on the market longer because of the holidays. In a normal year, winter is typically a time when buyers have the advantage.

This is the winter, however, when all that flies out the window, according to Danielle Hale, Realtor's chief economist. "Normally winter is a good time for buyers," she says, but qualifies it by adding that because the coronavirus pandemic upended normal real estate patterns by keeping buyers at home last spring, it has created a pent-up demand for homes that are only now being felt and felt hard.