If the winter holiday season now begins with Halloween, and the Super Bowl kicks off the spring homebuying season, when do people begin looking in earnest for second homes?

That starts the day after Christmas, according to the Private Community Registry, an online resource for folks looking for holiday houses. Visitors to the site increased 36% between December 2020 and January 2021, and requests for more information jumped 38% in that same period.

Those figures were larger before the pandemic, but the virus forced people to stay home and do more research, according to company spokesman Ben Keal.

For what it's worth, most of PCR's winter traffic comes from the chilly northeast states. As might be expected, visitors largely explore places in warm-weather states like Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas.

When is something that's supposedly temporary actually permanent? When it's the "temporary" surcharge on the guarantee fees that homebuyers pay when their mortgages are purchased or secured by government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The 10 basis point add-on (a basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point) was enacted as part of the 2011 Temporary Payroll Tax Cut. After 10 years, it was supposed to expire on Sept. 30, but there is no evidence the two mortgage entities have stopped collecting the fee.

About half of all mortgages are touched by Fannie or Freddie, meaning about half of all borrowers pay the guarantee fee. Now, to help pay for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, the add-on has been extended through 2032. Which kinda makes the "temporary" surcharge permanent, doesn't it?

Homebuyers may be able to use the reward points they've built up on their credit cards for down payments and closing costs. The points must be converted to cash prior to closing, and should be deposited in a bank. But otherwise, they're acceptable -- at least to Fannie Mae, which buys mortgages from originators and rolls them into securities for sale to investors worldwide.

Fannie Mae also permits certain up-front costs paid early in the transaction -- for example, lock-in fees, credit report fees and appraisal charges -- to be charged to the borrower's credit cards because they do not represent extraordinary amounts and credit card debt is considered in the borrower's total monthly debt-to-income equation.

There's a maximum of 2% of the loan amount, but borrowers need not pay off these charges before settlement.

There's a shortage of workers in practically every field, save for real estate. Membership in the National Association of Realtors has now reached a record of nearly 1.6 million.

Of course, not all agents and brokers plying the trade are NAR members. But many of the newcomers won't last, warns the group's top economist, Lawrence Yun.

The business "looks glamorous on TV," Yun said at NAR's annual convention last month. "Many people try it out, but some won't make it."

More signs of the apocalypse: Agents outnumber active listings by more than 3 to 1 in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area, according to data from the local Realtors association.

The beachside community of 70,000 had just 674 houses listed for sale in September, with some 2,200 agents vying to sell them. And the entire Sunshine State isn't much better: 212,000 agents are peddling 56,617 active listings.

Meanwhile, a small 328-square-foot house in Santa Cruz, California, recently sold for -- wait for it -- $1.025 million. That's $3,125 per square foot, the most ever in Northern California's Santa Cruz County, for a place that isn't right on the Pacific or on significant acreage. The house previously sold in 1999 for $250,000.

Would you consider buying a home at auction? If so, you're not alone. Nearly two-thirds of people queried in a recent Harris Poll said they would be open to the option.

Their main motivations were price and speed. Most believed they could save money by purchasing a house at auction, and a slight majority thought the process would be quicker.

But another benefit is that if you have competition, at least you'll know instantly what you're up against. No waiting until the seller opens all the offers, considers the pros and cons of each, and then announces a decision.

The poll of 3,000 consumers for ServiceLink, a Pittsburgh firm that provides digital services to the mortgage and finance industries, found that 10% of the respondents had already bought a place at an auction. Surprisingly, 28% didn't know doing so was even an option.

With the end of foreclosure moratoriums, ServiceLink suspects that home auctions will increase, as people who cannot make up their back mortgage payments decide to sell via auction rather than draw out the process. Indeed, Miriam Moore, who runs default services at the company, expects auction sales to "become more mainstream."

Meanwhile, a report from Auction.com says nearly half the houses sold at foreclosure auctions in the third quarter garnered more than sellers owed. The site also found that 4 out of 5 buyers were local, coming from within 100 miles of the properties purchased.

Not all real estate deals go smoothly. Something almost always happens, whether something funny, sad or totally weird.

Like the Oklahoma agent whose clients walked into a half-bath that had wallpaper -- featuring nude women. Luckily, they laughed about it. Or the Texas agent who showed a house with eight big-screen TVs -- all tuned to the same documentary about serial killers. He and his clients left right away and never looked back.

One Florida agent showed clients a house with a floor made of pennies. Unusual, to be sure. And when one California agent and his clients arrived at a showing, they found a pool party underway -- with 10 naked guests. Worse, the agent had called the sellers about the showing ahead of time!

I've been collecting tales like these for years, mostly from Realtor magazine, but also from other sources. Here are some of the better ones.

-- Years ago, Denver property manager Andrew Woodruff was tasked by a client to clean out a foreclosure. When he approached the garage, he noticed a smell "like a sweaty gym," Woodruff told Realtor. When he opened the doors, he found hundreds of pairs of used sneakers in a pile, all tied together by their laces. Goodwill wanted no part of this treasure, so Woodruff dropped them off at the nearest landfill.

-- Woodruff's story reminds me of one of my own. I'd rented out a room, and went to clean it out when the tenant vacated -- only to learn he had left me with hundreds of milk jugs filled with urine. Yuck! I treated them as hazardous waste, pouring the contents into the toilet, then took the empties to the dump. To add injury to insult, on my final trip down the stairs, I missed the last step and broke my ankle.

-- When Mark McNitt of Houston was leading a final walkthrough of a home with an elevator, his clients brought along their three children. The kids insisted on taking the elevator upstairs, promising they knew how to operate it. But the lift never arrived. When the adults heard the moppets screaming, they discovered that the elevator was stuck between floors: The kids had pushed all the buttons and tripped a safety switch. After a few minutes, the controls reset and the children were safely returned to the first floor.

-- Florida agent Stephen Falor attended a strange closing when he worked in Ohio. His clients showed up late, the husband dressed in tight shorts and the wife in a miniskirt and a see-through top. Upon arrival, she moved silently around the meeting room with extended arms, then walked out.

Turns out they wanted to cancel the sale because "the aura in the room wasn't right," said Falor. After the couple was told what would happen if they refused to move forward, they closed the next day -- "but not before the wife did one last circle around the table." This time, the aura was just fine.

-- Oklahoma agent Norma McKiddy went for the ride of her life at a listing presentation. When she started up the stairs, the sellers' huge Great Dane bound up behind her, darted through her legs and carried her like a jockey up and away. She yelled "Save me!", which the owner laughingly did. She eventually nailed the listing.

-- Florida agent Lilli Schipper recalls the time she was showing a house and the visitors' daughter used the master bedroom floor to do her "business." The mother cleaned up the mess without a word -- or an apology -- and the family hotfooted out of the house, never to be heard from again.

-- When Raleigh, North Carolina, agent Doreen Mathis and her clients arrived at one house, they were met by a man with "stringy, unwashed hair" who was excited to see them. So excited, in fact, that Mathis and her buyers felt a tad uneasy. She soon knew why: In the living room was a makeshift doghouse with "Killer" painted on it in drippy red letters, and in the bedroom were enlarged photos of three female heads, circled in red marker.

Starting to panic, the three quickly left -- followed closely by the man, who suddenly shoved the agent to the floor and said, "You have two seconds to get out of here."

-- When showing a waterfront property, Nancy Freiburger of Ocean Island, North Carolina, and her clients fell off the dock and into the lake. But her clients wanted to continue to look at houses, so they did -- soaking wet.

Every agent has a story or two like these. And some have heartening tales like Suzanne Menendez-Herbst's:

About two years ago, the California agent landed a client whose mother had recently passed away. She helped him clean up his mom's house to get it ready for sale. When her client took sick, Menendez-Herbst took him the hospital; when he needed special food, she'd bring it to him.

He later moved to another state, yet he continues to keep in touch and send the agent small gifts. Once he even had a pizza delivered to her house.

"We are not just transactional agents; we are an industry of caring professionals who want to make a positive impact on people's lives," Menendez-Herbst told Realtor. "Our clients become like family and remain a part of our lives in so many ways."

Some people rescue dogs from the pound. Anna Kruchten rescued hers from a real estate transaction.

The Phoenix broker had sold a client's house to someone who also wanted the seller's dog. The seller agreed. After all, everything is negotiable in real estate. Everything!

Somewhere along the line, though, the buyer changed his mind, and the seller couldn't take the pooch with him. So Kruchten stepped in to save the day. "He's been the best commission ever," she posted in a recent ActiveRain discussion. "Been seven years now, and little Barney is the sweetest pup."

Sometimes, though, sellers simply leave their animals behind, forcing the buyer to deal with them after the fact. In more than one instance, Mike Cooper, a broker in Winchester, Virginia, has had sellers leave a cat or two for their buyers. "Fortunately," he reports, "in each case the buyers were good sports" and still have the felines five years later.

In other cases, the deal can fall through. Or almost. Debb Janes of ViewHomes in Camas, Washington, once had a seller who demanded the buyer adopt his cat because he was moving overseas. But the buyer balked.

A friend of the seller ultimately agreed to take the cat, Janes reported, and the sale proceeded.

Even when sellers take their pets with them, the odors left behind can be tough to deal with. Indeed, animal smells turn off most would-be buyers.

Pet owners tend to be immune to their pets' smells because they have been living with them for so long. But there's an old adage in real estate: "If it smells, it won't sell."

In most cases, people allow their animals the run of the house. And sometimes, dogs and cats mark their territories with, well, you know, leaving behind pungent odors and unsightly stains. Sharon Sigman of RE/MAX in Leawood, Kansas, says that if your place has suffered pet damage, it may be devalued in the marketplace.

"The only cure is taking action to eliminate the problem before your home goes on the market," she warns.

To that end, here's Sigman's checklist for pet owners.

-- Pet odors come mostly from fur and dander, so don't allow cats or dogs to sleep on couches, chairs, beds or carpet, even if you've permitted it in the past. Instead, provide them with beds of their own. But make sure to remove the beds -- and your pets -- during showings. There's no need to advertise that you have animals.

-- Keep your beasts bathed and groomed so they don't add anything more to the existing aroma.

-- Get to work removing troublesome stains. There are numerous products available; seek advice from your local pet or hardware store. Hospital supply companies are also good sources for heavy-duty stain removal and odor control products. If nothing you try does the trick, call in a professional cleaning service.

-- Vacuum daily with a carpet deodorizer, and do the same just before showings, if you have enough warning. Change your vacuum's bags (if applicable) more frequently than usual. Also, pull back the drapes and open the windows for some fresh air; a closed-up home tends to hold more odors.

-- This one is worth saying again: Remove your animals during showings. If buyers spot a pet, they'll be on the lookout for stains and odors, whereas if they don't, they'll view the home more objectively.

It may be necessary to board your animals. But if that's the only way to keep them from soiling your freshly cleaned -- or replaced -- carpets, then do so. Put food bowls and litter boxes out of sight, too.

-- In some markets, stains and odors that can't be removed must be disclosed to would-be purchasers. If you don't, you could be liable.

If you aren't sure about the damage your pet has caused, rent or purchase a black light to shine on your floors. The results could be surprising, and will help you decide whether to clean or replace the carpet.

-- If you are unable or unwilling to replace damaged carpet or flooring, offer to return a certain amount of money to the buyer at closing to cover the cost. But since buyers tend to exaggerate the cost of repairs, come prepared with a couple of estimates from professionals.

Remember, if your home doesn't pass the sniff -- or stain -- test, it will adversely affect the way agents and buyers perceive your home. Some agents insist on showing only pristine houses. If word gets around that your place stinks, there will likely be fewer showings and a decline in your home's value.

On the flip side, pet ownership increased during the pandemic, pushing pet-friendly properties and communities to the forefront for many would-be buyers. According to design firm Mary Cook Associates, features like dog-washing stations are now highly sought.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 43% of pet owners would consider moving to accommodate their animals, and 29% of likely first-time buyers picked neighborhoods with their pets in mind -- prioritizing outdoor space and proximity to a veterinarian.

Pet owners want fenced yards, reports NAR Economist Jessica Lautz, and are likely to take flooring types into account, with a preference for easy-to-clean hardwoods. Some even want mud rooms or cat litter closets.