Holiday Sales: Real-Estate Deals Often Surge in December

This holiday season, some real-estate agents get the gift of overtime.

In the last weeks of the year, a surge of luxury homeowners make big moves. With fewer listings for sale, some last-minute shoppers go on the hunt for bargains, while others take advantage of tax benefits for year-end planning. For luxury real-estate agents, whose weekend getaways might cost them a six-digit commission, vacation is a relative term.

“This has been an active year, and it’s pushing through to the end,” said Jonathan Miller, a New York real-estate appraiser who notes that the final flurry of activity often occurs in early December, in a last-ditch effort before law firms and title companies shutter for the holidays.

On Thanksgiving Day, while Rick Edler’s family watched “The Good Dinosaur,” he sneaked out of the movie theater to make his own blockbuster: a $3 million home sale in California’s Palos Verdes Estates.

Mr. Edler, an agent with Vista Sotheby’s International Realty, left the movie theater to call his buyer because he heard the seller was willing to negotiate. (He got a tip from the seller’s agent, who was biking with his family in the desert.)

Read Full Story: Holiday Sales: Real-Estate Deals Often Surge in December