When selling a home, many homeowners tend to avoid certain seasons, as they are under the impression that the spring and summer months are the best time to put your home on the market. While the warmer months have historically seen more activity for property transactions, how you present your home makes a greater impression than when you put it on the market.
For those of you with your home already on the market or considering selling during the winter months, we discuss a few steps you can take to get more buyers in the door and prevent your home from looking as miserable as the weather does!
Kerb appeal
This is something that’s important, regardless of what season you put your home on the market, but is especially vital in the winter months. First impressions count and the winter weather will do its best to make your home look a little messier than usual, so you need to stay on top of maintaining the exterior.
Keeping driveways and paths as clean as possible is the best start. There is bound to be all sorts of debris and leaves blowing around in the wind so just take a moment to tidy up every now and then. Weather like snow can be a positive at times as it may give your home a very cosy, festive look, however, be sure to tackle any hazardous icy pathways just to be safe.
When the days get colder and darker, we usually tend to forget that our gardens exist for a few months. However, if your home is on the market, a cleanup of the garden can go a long way. This doesn’t mean you have to get out there and begin renovating with new plants and features, but it does mean that the garden has to appear as if it hasn’t been forgotten about since that last BBQ in August. Give anything that’s overgrown a trim, and any outdoor furniture that’s been battered by the weather should be removed and hidden or replaced.
Make the most of the situation
While it may feel like you’re fighting against dark days and dreadful weather to make your home more appealing to buyers, there are some ways that you can use this time of year to your advantage. The objective here is to make your home a haven of warmth so that buyers will want to come flooding in to escape the cold.
Lighting, similar to a property's kerb appeal, is another factor that’s vital regardless of the time of year, but when it starts to get darker around 4 pm, opening the curtains to try and flood the room with natural light isn’t really an option. However, you’re not completely out of luck as the right type of soft ambient lighting around the house can create the right sort of welcoming and cosy atmosphere that you’re looking for.
Keeping your property clean is also imperative. It may become tiring cleaning your home after every viewing, but it’s definitely worth it. With the weather being wet and windy, both you and buyers are certain to bring an amount of mess on the bottom of your shoes, so get a good doormat to prevent it travelling throughout the house and vacuum daily.
Final bits
Finally, you should inspect your home for all of those odd jobs like creaky doors and small marks on the wall. A bit of paint and WD40 can do wonders in making your home seem like it’s all in working order. The bigger the list of small fixes for you, means a bigger list of small fixes for the buyer and only adds to the ‘reasons not to buy’ list.
Normally during the warmer months, we’d advise opening as many windows as possible to get the fresh air in, however, when its minus 2 outside that may not be an option, so try and introduce a pleasant scent such as fresh coffee or a subtle plug-in air freshener.
Also, the greenery outside may be turning brown, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a few decorations inside to make sure the home feels full of life.
