5 Simple Tricks to Selling Your Home During Cold Winter Months

Unless you live in a part of the country that’s sunny the whole year round, the winter season is usually not the best time to sell a home. Aside from bad weather, which discourages potential buyers from going out and visiting properties, not to mention makes your home look dreary, many people tend to avoid big purchases during the holidays. Plus, trying to work home showings into your busy holiday schedule may be a frustrating experience to say the least.

Still, there are some notable advantages to selling your home in the winter. For starters, fewer homes on sale mean less competition to contend with. What’s more, anyone who’s bold enough to venture out in bad weather to see a house is probably more serious about making a purchase decision than your average buyer.

With that being said, below are a few tricks you can use to sell your home faster in winter.

1. Keep Paths Clear

On the days leading up to a showing, be sure to continually shovel a path through any snow, even if flakes are still falling. Footprints on fresh snow can turn into ice, so be sure to scrape your walking paths and steps regularly, adding a layer of salt or sand if necessary. You want to have a clear path from the street to the sidewalk so visitors don’t have to wade through snowdrifts and possibly slip. It’s also a good idea to place a rubber mat outside the front door and a receptacle for wet boots and umbrellas.

2. Let in as Much Natural Light as Possible

During winter, conventional wisdom tells us to keep the blinds, shutters, and drapes closed, the better to keep warm air in. But during home showings, you want to ensure that as much natural light as possible shines through windows, which will help your indoor spaces appear airier and more spacious. And because winter days tend to be gray and dreary, you should still turn on every light in the house and add a few more to eliminate dark spots.

3. Make Sure Everything is Clean and Sparkly

Dust out furniture, remove cobwebs in the corners of rooms, and wipe clean your ceiling fan blades and light fixtures. If necessary, bring back the glow of your bathrooms and kitchens by bleaching the grout and apply new caulk to your sinks, tubs, and showers. Mirrors, chrome faucets, and other hardware should also be gleaming—replaced, if necessary—during showings. Naturally, your floors should be washed, polished, and vacuumed daily.

4. Make Things Nice and Toasty

To help potential buyers imagine themselves living in the home, turn up the comfort factor by cranking up the heat, which will also entice them to linger on particularly cold days. The trick is to heat the house one or two degrees warmer than usual a few hours before a showing, then bringing it back to normal temperatures a few minutes before buyers show up—this prevents the HVAC system from making noise from kicking on when they’re around.

5. Create a Homey Environment

Make rooms look and feel warm, cozy, and inviting by placing throw pillows and afghans on sofas, placing hot cocoa or coffee on the coffee table, and dressing up the dining room table with nice tableware. Turn your bathroom into a mini spa room by hanging fresh robes on the door, placing towels and washcloths in baskets, and arranging aromatic soaps, lotions, and shampoo bottles.

If your priority, however, is to sell your home right away, you can always sell it as-is to a property investor like Blue Hen Homebuyers. We buy all kinds of homes, regardless of their age or condition. Call our offices today at 910-802-2222 to learn more about how we can help you.