13 November 2018
 Categories: Real Estate, Blog

When listing your home in the winter, there are considerations that differ from traditional spring and summer home listings. The following will help you prepare your home for the real estate listings.

1. Shovel: If you live in a snowy climate, shovel early and shovel often. Buyer's should not have to wade through drifts of the white stuff just to get to your front porch. Clear the way for them. 

2. Welcome Mat: Not only is a welcome mat ... welcoming, it is also handy. It gives buyers a place to wipe their feet before entering your home, protecting your floors from snow, salt, and anything else they might drag in. 

3. Evergreens: This is not the year to compete in the neighborhood's light display championship, but rather a year for restraint. A simple, evergreen wreath or even twin evergreen trees in planters on your porch are enough to celebrate the season this year. You do not want to overwhelm potential buyers with your celebration. They need to see your house, not be blinded by holiday lights.  

4. Baked Goods: The scent of warm apple pie wafting from the general vicinity of the kitchen creates a wonderful ambiance in your home for buyers. While the holidays invoke a variety of tasty scents, there is no reason you have to actually bake an apple pie when you are already busy. Try to re-create the yummy smells without all the work. Apartment Therapy suggests that simmering various combinations of fruit and spices on the stove can have the same results. 

5. Simple Interior Decor: Like your outside light display and front porch decor, your interior decorations should be kept to a minimum. No one says that you can't celebrate the season like you always do. Keep your traditions, just pare them back a bit. Put up one tree, instead of six. Decorate one room, instead every single one. Buyers need to be able to picture their holiday decorations in your home. 

6. Stay on the Market: Lastly, yet most important, stay listed. So many sellers take their homes off the market over the holiday season because they just don't want the extra headache. This is actually the opposite of what you should do. Everyone takes their home off the market. By staying listed, you are one of the few houses still available for buyers who need to make a purchase. Your competition is virtually eliminated and the buyers who are still out there are hard core, serious buyers. 

Enjoy the season. Celebrate with your family and friends. After all, this will be the last one you celebrate in this particular house.