Homebuyers tend to be more active during the warmer months of the year, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon trying to sell your home in the winter. Instead, try to these circumstances as an opportunity. With fewer people seeking to sell homes over the holidays, this means there’s less competition for whoever’s looking to buy during this time of the year. And make no mistake about it, there are people who buy homes in winter.
Selling your home in the winter, however, takes a little bit of adjustment. Here are some surefire ways to pull off a winter home sale:
Tidy Up
Low light during the winter season has a tendency to bring out a home’s blemishes. With a lack of natural light, things like dirt and grime only become all the more apparent.
The key to closing a sale in the winter is to get tidy. This includes (and requires you to) pay extra attention to all the usual problems of the wintertime.
Dusting your furniture, ceiling fan blades or any other surface and doing away with cobwebs does wonders to reduce the natural gloom. You may also want to clear out gutters and drain covers, do some landscaping and keep pathways free of snow.
Warm Things Up
If you live in an area that gets chilly enough in the winter to need heating, make sure things are toasty in every room during showings. Consider turning up the radiators throughout your home when staging it. If you have a fireplace, light it up to show just how cozy your home can be.
Being able to assure that your home is being heated with an environmentally friendly means is also going to sweeten the sale to younger buyers. If your area’s utility provider sources from renewables, if your own home has solar panels or its own wind turbines, or perhaps you happen to use green heating like pellet stoves instead of wood, make sure to let your buyer know. If this isn’t the case for your home, try to give buyers the assurance that your home is set up to easily make these changes should they want to.
Switch on the Lights
Again, winter marks a time when things tend to get pretty dark. You have to adapt to this and help give your buyers an image of what your home would look like the rest of the year, along with creating a warm appealing glow for your home.
Invest in outdoor lighting to help buyers get a view of your exterior. Make sure that your light bulbs inside are bright and have a consistent wattage. To make the most of what little natural light you have to work with, washing or perhaps even just wiping down your windows will let more daylight in. Cleaning light fixtures is a good idea too.
Partner Up with an Agent
Having a real estate agent help you close the sale is integral to success, especially this time of the year. But because of the holidays, you’ll need to understand that they may have limited availability throughout the season. Be sure to have proper coordination with your agent at this time, or you risk putting off a sale and potentially discouraging serious buyers.
When all else fails, however, you can always sell your home to a property investor like Blue Hen Homebuyers. We buy all kinds of homes, regardless of their age or condition, at any time of the year. Call our offices today at 910-802-2222 to learn more about how we can help you.
Photo by Julia Jackson from FreeImages