Turn Christmas Fear to Christmas Cheer: Get Your Listing Sold with Holiday Staging
Turn Christmas Fear to Christmas Cheer: Get Your Listing Sold with Holiday Staging
It’s no secret that putting your home on the market during the Holiday Season is considered the worst time to list your home. Many realtors will steer you away from selling during this time or put off listing until after the holidays. If a sale is really what you need, and you are up for the challenge, there are some advantages to selling during this time.
Reason being is most are going to put it off until after the holidays, but when the supply of homes is lower, the chances of selling become higher which means a higher potential for getting a home sold at a greater price. Let’s not forget about the Law of Supply and Demand, as the supply decreases the product prices increase; giving you an advantage over the competition. However, you can increase the chances of your home being sold with some tactical Holiday Staging.
The reason so many are deterred by the Christmas holiday is because it’s never a pleasant conversation telling a client they have gone overboard with the decorations. However, a gentle and friendly reminder can make all the difference.
Here are a few tips to staging during the holidays without going overboard and getting that faster sale.
1. Leave the Holiday in the House and NOT in Your Photos.
When staging your listing, make sure the pictures you are providing of the home are not taken with Christmas decorations. When the weather starts getting cold, the first place they start looking is online from the comfort of their home. You want to have them envisioning their life in that beautifully staged home, not getting a sneak peek of Santa’s Workshop.
2. Spruce up Your Curb Appeal
The weather may be frightful, but your curb appeal doesn’t have to be. Luckily, home staging in Tampa can reflect the Christmas Season from the curb as well. Try using planters that feature evergreen plants. Spruce, Evergreens, Pine Cones, and Holly Berries (fake or otherwise) can be a great way to draw the eye of your buyer and give a Christmas-y vibe. Adding lights to these arrangements might be a nice touch as well, but we would suggest using white lights only. Colored lights can clash and won’t play up the home itself, which is your primary goal.
3. Keep the Christmas Cheer to a Minimum
While we realize that some sellers like to go all out for the Holidays, this is not the time to drag out the blow-up snowman and the beautifully lit-up reindeer. Less is more when staging a home during the holiday season. You want to give them the sense of Christmas without being overly dramatic. A good rule of thumb is to keep Christmas in one room. Your goal with the rest of the home is to associate decorative accents, or scents reminiscent of Christmas never hurt either. Keep it simple.
4. Find Those Motivated Buyers
Chances are if a person is in the market during the holidays in Tampa, they have a very good reason. Work on looking for buyers that are on a deadline. Maybe they are relocating for a job and need to find something quick, or are college students wanting to find a home before the school year starts up again. These are your prospects to target and start showing them your Holiday staged listing. Once they fall in love with the atmosphere you have created, they are bound to put pen to paper and get your listing sold.
All in all, you should rise to the occasion of selling during the Holidays. Make sure you keep these tips in mind for staging a home during the holidays and you may be able to beat the competition by a longshot.