It is the Holidays and my house is For Sale – What Now?

Your house in on the market and now the holidays are here.  You still want to enjoy your home for this special season, but you need to keep your sales objective in mind. How can you achieve both goals?

The good news is that holiday’s buyers tend to be more serious and dedicated to finding their new home.  Many other sellers often delay putting their home on the market, so there will be less competition for your home sale.

“Holidays can be personal on a lot of levels, but you want to make sure your decor is neutral,” advises Amy Powers, owner of Accent Home Staging & Interiors of Atlanta. “You want to romance your buyer, not invite them to your Christmas party.”

Try some of these tips to enjoying the season and making your home even more inviting to buyers:

• Before you can stage your home, make sure that it is clean and uncluttered as we talked about in my last article.
• Less is always more when showing off your home. Homes can look their best in their holiday finery, but don’t lose the appeal of the best aspects of the house with too many decorations.  For example, let the beauty of a designer fireplace and mantle be seen with just some candles and small amounts of greenery rather than covering it with large swags of fir and pine, as well as,  huge stockings.
• Complement the palette of your home. If your living room is painted in soothing ocean tones, select white and gold for your holiday accents.
• Focus on the architectural details of your home. Hang a piece of mistletoe in an arched doorway to draw the eye, rather than obscuring the shape of the door with too much decoration.
• The same is true of windows. On the ledge of a bay window place a candle or display your menorah.  Don’t block a beautiful view with snowflake decals.
• Be careful of the size of a tree.  A tall tree can accentuate a two story room, but if it has a wide base you may loose that feeling of openness that is the rooms greatest feature.
• Give house hunters a reason to remember your home. Play soft classical music and offer some homemade holiday treats.  That encourages them to spend more time in their future home and admire its best features.
• Think about offering some holiday cheer in the form of financing. Lenders can be the proverbial Scrooges, so if you can afford to offer a home loan to a serious buyer, think about it.  You could get a good rate of return on your money.
• Most importantly, talk with your real estate professional – your best guide to all things related to selling and staging your home.