Tips for Selling Your Home in Winter

When it comes to selling a home, most realtors will tell you that spring is king when it comes to the best time to sell. Spring listings always seem to move faster, and the better weather seems to be naturally set for open houses.

But you don’t always get to pick when you have to put your house on the market. If you’re putting your home up for sale during the winter, then you need to check out the following tips on how to sell your home faster.

4 Tips for Selling Your Home in Winter:

• Let’s talk about decorations — First off, let’s address the elephant in the room. Is it acceptable to decorate your home for the holidays while you are trying to sell your home? Some realtors will say yes, and others will say no. But the reality lies somewhere in between.

  Yes, decorate your home. In fact, some realtors point out that the “homey” family quality goes a long way towards selling a home. But, don’t go overboard with lots of inflatables that block the view of the home. Instead, your decorations should be modest. Also, after the holidays have passed, make sure that you take all the decorations down. You don’t want to be that person who leaves them up year-round.

• Lighten up — One reason why spring is sometimes preferred for home sales is that the sun doesn’t set until around 8:00, giving plenty of sunlight for people getting off work to check out the homes. During the winter, you don’t have this option since it probably starts getting dark around 5:30 or so. To help with this, set up outdoor floodlights that can help light up the property and show it off for people driving through the neighborhood.

• Get comfy and cozy — When you’re staging the interior of your home, make sure to play up the coziness of the locale. Make sure you have your heater set at a comfortable temperature, but not so warm that it becomes stifling. If you have a fireplace, light it up and have lots of warm blankets and other touches visible to help set the stage for a comfortable home.

• Get good outdoor pictures — When you are taking pictures for the online listing, you may think that your property looks great with a dusting of snow. While this may be true, it also may not be able to sell a home if all of your pictures show it covered in snow. Exterior pics should accentuate all the great selling points of your home and this is hard to do if the property is covered in snow and ice.

If you’re trying to sell your home this winter, it’s not a good idea to decorate it as bright as the Christmas Vacation home. But there are some tasteful, modest things you can do to help emphasize your home’s “cheery” qualities that make it feel like a great home for the holidays.

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