Holiday Real Estate Tips: How to Sell Your Home Over the Holidays

If you’re serious about selling your house, don’t get discouraged because the weather turns colder, the nights get longer, and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season arrives in a flurry, every year. So dig in your heels and make the decision to show off your home during the winter holidays: it is your fortress of comfort and joy, and you want the new owner to feel that way too. Here are some holiday real estate tips for you.As you’ve prepared to put your home on the market, you will have gotten good, high-quality photographs and video footage for your agent to use on the Internet. Be sure to collect pictures that depict the property during different seasons. In winter, prospective home-buyers will appreciate finding exactly what they are looking for in your photographs before heading out in the cold to verify your house lives up to its pics and vids.When it’s time to decorate, go for a look that is cheery, bright and uncluttered. Overdoing it with holiday decorations or overtly religious themes might be less appealing to some prospective buyers. And remember, though there are fewer listings, and fewer browsers during the winter holiday months, the ones who are shopping this time of year are quite serious to brave the elements and fit house-hunting into such a hectic season.Nothing evokes feelings of hearth and home quite like the sense of smell, and you can put this to work for you by baking in your warm, cozy kitchen, or simulating such aromas when receiving house-hunting guests. Be sure to have bright, working lightbulbs to show off your home and property past those early winter sundowns. And be sure to highlight special features your home may have such as heated garage, floors or driveways.Your home in all its festive, winter glory can be exactly what your buyers need to make your home appeal to them. But if you hold an open-house during gift-giving season, you may want to consider pulling any real presents out from under the tree and stowing them away until your showing is over. Wrapped, empty boxes can replace them and look just as festive.Keep your showing times flexible whenever you can during the dark and hectic winter months, and your realtor will find that motivated buyer who was meant to walk through your door and make it their own.