Selling a home during the winter months?

While it is true that spring is often the season when home sales move most briskly, winter can be a great time of year to make your home stand out. With less competition on the market, you can use the beauty of the season to the play up your home's cozy charm for potential buyers.

Start Outside
Visitors will start to form their opinions about your home before they reach the front door. Put your best foot forward by making sure the exterior of your house is tidy and welcoming. Remove any lingering autumn leaves or spider webs. Make sure eavestroughs are clean and minor exterior repairs are taken care of. Clear walkways of ice and snow so visitors can get to your door safely, and trim any bushes or branches that might obstruct their path. Clean windows inside and out, and remove summer screens to let in more bright winter light and give the interior of your home a warm, cozy glow. Consider adorning your front door with a wreath or placing a handsome winter arrangement of branches and boughs in a pot on the front stoop. These thoughtful touches will make visitors eager to come inside from the cold.

Keep Your Entrance Spotless
In wintertime, it is easy for your home's entryway to become a chaotic dumping ground for jackets, boots, and wet mittens. Stow these items away in closets and bins during showings and make sure that there are places for visitors to hang up their coats. Put out a rubber boot mat for boots, perhaps with a little sign to invite people to remove their outdoor shoes, since you have probably shined your floors in preparation for showings. You might even leave out a basket with slippers and house-shoes for use by visitors, especially if your floors tend to be cold.

Add Cozy Winter Touches
During the dark and cold days of winter, it an be helpful to remember the Danish concept of hygge. A Danish word with no direct English translation, hygge is something like coziness, the sense of intimacy and quiet conviviality we can especially enjoy during the winter months. It's a feeling to keep in mind as you prepare your home for winter sale. Set your thermostat to a comfortable temperature. Think about lighting that will give your rooms a warm and inviting glow. Perhaps leave some flameless candles lit on the mantel or light a fire in the fireplace. Drape a warm, soft throw over the edge of an armchair to suggest that your home is a happy and comforting place to spend a cold winter day.

Winter can be an important time of year for entertaining and spending time together, so think about how to showcase the parts of your home where family and friends might gather: playrooms, dining areas, and living rooms can be staged to show visitors the possibilities for winter fun and entertainment. Fresh flowers, a plate of holiday cookies, or some warm apple cider on the stove can help to evoke winter's warmer, festive side.

We can't always choose when to list our homes for sale, but selling in winter is nothing to fear. Our team can help to highlight your home as a warm oasis for buyers and make it stand out during the cold days ahead.