Selling your home during the winter months can be a daunting task. The holiday season is already a hectic time of year, and selling a house can be stressful. However, there are distinct advantages to selling your home this time of year.
The housing inventory is always lower in the winter months, meaning fewer listings and less competition. By taking just a few simple steps to prepare and stage your home, you can sell it sooner rather than later.
To make sure your house is sold at the best price and with the least amount of stress this winter, consider the following tips.
Keep your home warm: Make sure the moment potential buyers walk into your home, they can warm up from the chilly outdoors. This will help would-be homebuyers imagine themselves coming in from the cold into their new house. You’ll also want to find any drafts in your house and seal them up. They’ll be very noticeable in your otherwise warm and toasty home.
Holiday plans: Make sure
you plan any trips out of town
or holiday parties well ahead of time. Timing is extremely important when selling a home, so you want to make sure offers aren’t coming in when you’re out of town or that potential buyers show up during your annual family holiday dinner.
Decorate for the season: Keep your seasonal decorations conservative, but a light and bright, or beautifully decorated, home with well-placed greenery can give prospective buyers a picture of how their own decorations could fit in the home. Just make sure you remove any holiday decorations as soon as the holidays are over. Don’t be the house with lights still up in February.
Manage your curb appeal: Many houses look their best during the warmer months, but
a home with simple seasonal decorations, bright lights, or greenery is still warm and inviting and appealing to would-be buyers. You should make sure your driveway and sidewalks are always swept or shoveled, and clear off any decks or patios. Also, remove any potentially dangerous dangling icicles or built up snow from your roof.
Hire a Realtor: All real estate is local, so it’s important to work with a Realtor who’s familiar with your neighborhood and community. Realtors know what buyers in your area are looking for, and can create a marketing strategy that will help you achieve the best results.
The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors is “The Voice of Real Estate in Greater Chattanooga.” The Association is a regional organization with more than 1,500 members, and is one of more than 1,400 local boards and associations of Realtors nationwide that comprise the National Association of Realtors. The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors services Hamilton and Sequatchie counties in southeast Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties in northwest Georgia. For more information, visit www.gcar.net.