13 Tips To Attract Buyers In Fall and Winter
Attracting a buyer to your home requires a little extra effort in the off-season, particularly because days are shorter and tough weather can discourage buyers from touring your property.
Here are a few suggestions for giving your home added appeal:
1. Utilize Autumn Accent Colors. You don't need to dump a lifeless sofa when you can accessorize its dullness with bright red, orange and/or golden yellow pillows. Toss a quilt or autumn-colored throw over a chair. After you've cleared away the clutter and depersonalized each room, bring a few autumn hues to each room by placing bold-colored accent pieces in odd groupings such as 3's and 5's. Create an autumn centerpiece for the dining room table by arranging pine cones and nuts around orange candles, stick in a few leaves from the yard.
2. Make your house cozy. While you still need to declutter for potential buyers, soft blankets and extra pillows in the living room and bedrooms make a house inviting in the winter. If you have a fireplace, use it during open houses and showings.
3. Decorate for warmth. Celebrate the holidays as you would, but tone it down a little to create an environment where buyers can see themselves celebrating.
4. Focus on lighting. An abundance of exterior and interior lights are essential when showing your home at dusk or later. Higher wattage light bulbs that provide a warm will feel inviting during the cold winter months.
Above all, bring in the light. When days get shorter, the sun sets lower in the horizon and casts wider shadows. Pull up the blinds, open the shutters, push back the drapes on every window. Turn on every light in the house, including appliance lights and closet lights. Brighten darker rooms with few windows by placing spotlights on the floor behind furniture, and turn off the TV.
5. Prepare Autumn Edibles. Speaking of autumn scents, you might set out freshly baked pumpkin cupcakes or simmer hot apple cider on the stove. Put a tray of cinnamon sticks on the counter, dotted with whole cloves. Fill a bowl with crisp red apples.
6. Offer Parting Treats to Potential Buyers. Maybe you could leave a guestbook by the door for people to leave comments about the home? Gathering buyer feedback can be crucial. And buyers will feel more compelled to leave you a note if you give them something in return, like tiny packets of candy corn or those snack-sized candy bars. Or you can go all-out and leave a tray of individually wrapped caramelized apples.
7. Clean Up the Yard. Rake dead leaves and debris in your lawn. Don't let overgrown vegetation block the windows or path to the entrance. Cutting bushes and tree limbs will let the sun inside and showcase the exterior of your home. Cutaway summer vines and cut down dead flowers. Make the most of the autumn weather in the fall real estate market.
8. Create Autumn Curb Appeal. The most popular autumn flowers are chrysanthemums (or mums), and they bloom for a long time. Marigolds are another idea for fall. Both mums and marigolds are available in yellow, which is my number one home selling color. Plant them in pots. Place pots on the steps and along the sidewalk. Accent with pumpkins or other types of squash.
9. Clean the Windows. Rain and wind from over the summer months can make your windows dusty and streaked by autumn. You might not notice smudges, but buyers will, if only on a subconscious level. Your windows need to sparkle to sell a home. Maybe your cats routinely rub their little noses on the inside glass while walking along window ledges. You'll need to wash my windows inside and out every autumn. Remove screens and spray them down.
10.Check the HVAC. You want the air inside your home to smell fresh. When was the last time you changed your furnace filter? You can buy 90-day furnace filters. Check the HVAC system before you need to turn on the heater. Besides, the buyer will ask a home inspector to look at your HVAC. If you discover problems with your furnace, it's better to fix them before your home goes on the market.
11. Showcase energy efficiency. Buyers may be thinking more about heating bills in the winter. Providing written information about energy-efficient improvements you’ve made, and your average utility bills helps buyers calculate their overall expenses.
12. Clean Out the Fireplace. Ah, nothing smells like autumn than smoke from a wood-burning fireplace. However, in some parts of the country, burning wood indoors or outdoors is outlawed. In Sacramento, we have certain days when we are not allowed to burn wood in the fireplace. If you have a gas fireplace, light it when buyers come through. If the fireplace is filled with cobwebs because it hasn't been used for months, vacuum it out and wash it down.
13. Upgrade your house photos. Buyers will try to minimize their travel time in winter and will look online first. It’s essential to have professional photos which will showcase your home in it’s best light.
When you are ready to sell your home, call the DiPeso Group. With over 500 homes sold over the past 20 years, we have the experience, technology and marketing to reach thousands of buyers and get your home sold quickly and for highest price possible.
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