Selling your home during the holidays

Homes sell all year round and the holidays are no exception. If buyers are looking during one of the most hectic times of the year, they are serious. The benefit of selling at this time is there is less competition.

selling-during-holidays

First impressions count all year round

Your front walk and access to the front door should be easily accessible. Overgrown landscaping should be cut back. If there is snow or ice, clear a safe path. The front door can have a holiday wreath and welcome mat but avoid overdoing it.

Stage first

A good staging mantra is ‘less is more’. If you prepared your house for sale and it is de-cluttered, clean and ready for showings, a few decorations are all you need. If your holiday decorating style is ‘more is more’ then it may be best to wait till after the holidays to sell your house.

Simple merry décor

Seasonal decorating can include a bowl of pinecones or ornaments, holly, poinsettias and mistletoe. A table runner with a holiday floral or a pitcher of pine branches as a centerpiece looks great on the dining table without overdoing it.

Warm and inviting

A pile of blankets or a heater may give folks the chills and should not be in the listing photos. This will have potential buyers asking, “Is this house too drafty, cold and uncomfortable?” Make sure the house is warm and inviting for showings and photos. Make a fire in the fireplace; turn on the lights and your home will warm up to viewing online.

Listing photos

If you decide to list in the month of the December and you have decked every hall, nook and cranny with boughs of holly, do not, I repeat, do NOT take listing photos of your holiday-decorated house. The last thing you want is time stamped photos of a Christmas wonderland showing in the spring.

Exterior shots

The same goes for snowy exterior shots. Once the weather warms up, snow in listing photos are a turn off. I work with many Realtors who have the exterior shot by a professional photographer months before the house goes on the market because those photos will look better when everything is lush and in season. The sellers and the interior of the house may not be ready, but the exterior is. Once spring market hits and everyone is ready, interior photos are shot and the listing goes live with the exterior looking beautiful from a warmer season.

If that is not an option, be sure to have spring or summer photos available to show off the property in every season.

Scents

Keep scents fresh and natural. Many with allergies and asthma will react to strong artificial scents. Great timing would be to have a showing after holiday baking.

Serious buyers may be looking around the holidays because they are on vacation and have the time to house hunt. If the listing photos draw them in to walk through your home that is tastefully decorated for the season, you may receive the best holiday gift of all, a sold sign.