One thing that happens to all homeowners is that we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. This is especially true of holiday decorations. When you pull out holiday decor this year, think like a stager or a designer. You don’t want to use every decoration or ornament you’ve ever owned. This year, for the sake of appealing to the buyers touring your home, use your best decorations as holiday accents in each room without drawing attention away from your home’s best selling features.
Your home may have large windows with a great view or maybe your home has a dream kitchen. Whatever sold you on your home when you first bought it is most likely the same feature(s) that will sell your house this holiday season. So, don’t cover up your view with an excessively large Christmas tree, even though you may have the high ceilings for it, or bury your living room in snow globes, nutcrackers, and an abnormally large nativity scene. You want to accentuate your home’s best features with holiday decor, not bury them.
Just remember that you should still enjoy the holidays in your home even if you’re trying to sell it. Holiday decor can go a long way in making your house feel like a future home for those touring it. If you have a fireplace, decorate it with garland and hang stockings from its mantle. Use candles and wallflowers that are iconic smells of the season, such as pumpkin spice or balsam and cedar. You especially want to keep your home clutter-free and need to clean it regularly. The holidays can easily bring in the clutter, so make sure you stay on top of it. You want homebuyers to feel comfortable and warm the moment they walk through your front door. You want them to feel at home.
2) Price Your Home to Sell
You and your listing agent will most likely come up with a pricing strategy together based on comparable homes in the area, what the current housing market is doing, and what the demand for housing looks like or is projected to do. Ultimately, several variables go into pricing ones home to sell, however, there are a couple of easy tricks that can help attract homebuyers.
If your home was a lemonade stand that was competing against a rival lemonade stand on the other side of the street, how would you make your lemonade more enticing to people passing by? Maybe your lemonade comes in a larger cup, maybe it comes with ice, or maybe it’s just priced lower than your competition.
If your home looks like all the other homes on the block with similar features, then a lower price point will definitely draw in more traffic than your rivals. However, if your home is the largest one on the block, has more acreage, or a double car garage and pool, you can price your home based on the increased value it provides. Start off by seeing how much your home is worth by checking out online estimates and then compare them to other houses in your area.
Use Strategic Price Points When Listing Your Home
Have you ever noticed while you’re grocery shopping that almost all prices end in .99, such as $1.99 or $4.99? This simple manipulation of pricing is called setting strategic price points and essentially makes the price of something appear smaller (or cheaper) than it really is. The same exact concept works when pricing your house to sell. For example, if you decide your home could sell for $500,000, pricing it at $499,000 will (theoretically) draw in more traffic and possibly more offers.
3) Make Your Curb Appeal a Top Priority
Focus on your curb appeal when selling your home during the holidaysYour neighborhood may actually look more appealing to homebuyers during the holiday season. Maybe you live on one of those streets where everyone from miles around drives down your lane to see houses lit up in all colors of holiday splendor. You don’t want to go overboard with your exterior holiday decorations, but you want to make your house shine along with the other homes on your block.
