Cold Weather Real Estate Tips: How to Sell Your Home During Winter

Author: Suzie Wilson

Whether you’re a first-time seller or an old pro, it’s always worth looking at current statistics and the state of the housing market before selling a house, particularly during fall or winter. While conventional wisdom suggests that fall and winter are the least popular times to sell a home, there are a number of potential benefits to selling during this time if you approach it in the correct manner.

5 Tips to Selling Your Home in Winter: Selling your home in the fall or winter can actually be a great decision. Here are some tips to help guide your cold-weather sale:

1. Know Your Audience

The first rule of real estate in the fall and winter is that you must always know your audience of potential buyers. Understand what they need and what the typical potential buyer in your area are seeking; that way, you can be sure to provide it.

For instance, buyers in the colder months are often looking for a warm, cozy house in which they can see themselves comfortably celebrating the holiday season with friends and family. But try not to overthink things; this doesn’t mean you need to install a brand new fireplace in your home. Our text tip offers suggestions for warming up your home.

2. Keep Your Visitors Warm

The easiest way to turn a potential buyer away from a house they were about to tour in the winter is to have it seem cold and forbidding. A dark and cold home is not very inviting. When you show your house, keep it at a warm, comfortable temperature that isn’t too hot, but still offers respite from the cold outside. By staging your house with warm pools of light throughout each room, you can make it feel cozier, and warmer.

3. Celebrate the Season

While winter may not seem like the ideal season for touring homes, you can make it fun by celebrating what everyone loves about the season. You don’t need to go overboard; a few candles that smell of pine trees and a holiday welcome mat will do the trick.

You can add to the ambiance by baking treats for your visitors and adding small, tasteful seasonal touches throughout the home. A few simple decorations may help potential buyers picture themselves living in your home during the colder months, and all year long.

4. Take Advantage of Limited Inventory:

While many people think of selling homes during the “off season” as a handicap, that isn’t necessarily true. Turn that attitude around and get yourself excited about the potential benefits of selling your house in the fall or winter.

For instance, the fact that there are fewer people trying to sell houses in your area is to your advantage. With less competition, more buyers will be attracted to your house. Evidence also suggests that the potential buyers looking for houses when it is less comfortable out are the truly dedicated ones. When people tour a house in winter, they are genuinely looking to buy, whereas during the warmer months potential buyers may tour several different houses before they find “the one.”

5. Don’t Assume You Need to Set a Low Price Point

Because there is limited inventory during the colder months, you don’t necessarily need to set your home at a lower price point just because of the season. Just like you would do any other time of the year, do your research into the current market trends in your area and see what comparable houses sell for.

Let that steer your price setting – not your assumptions about the state of the market in the fall or winter. For instance, homes in Portsmouth, NH, have sold for an average of $502K in the past month alone. You may be surprised by what motivated buyers will pay for a home any time of year.

Thinking About Selling Your Home in Fall or Winter? Don’t worry! Selling a house is a large undertaking any time of the year, but that doesn’t mean that a sale in fall or winter will be any more difficult than a sale in the warmer months. If you focus on providing a warm, aesthetically pleasing place for your potential buyers to tour, you’ll make it easy for them to picture themselves spending the holidays in their new home.

Contact Red Post Realty today for assistance with selling your home during fall or winter, or any time of year.