Traditionally, the housing market heats up in the springtime, but you don’t have to wait for warm weather to make sales. The truth is, any time of the year is a great time to sell a home as long as you know how to attract qualified leads.
During the fall and winter months, there will be less competition and more urgent buyers who are seriously in need of a new home. You can use the limited pool of properties to your advantage, encouraging more people to see the offerings in your portfolio. Capitalize on the small market by letting buyers know you have high-quality homes available year-round — for example, by recruiting the help of professional cold callers who can help you reach out to more buyers in your area.
Once you get the word out and begin scheduling viewings, ensure that each home looks its best by implementing a few of these home staging techniques for fall and winter. If you’re looking to sell properties during the holiday season, these staging tips will help you close the deal!
Seasonal, Non-Denominational Decor
As the holiday season begins, many people are eager to fill their homes with festive decor. But while it can be fun to incorporate spooky Halloween decorations and opulent Christmas trees, they may not be the best choices for staging a home. If your primary goal is to attract qualified leads, it’s recommended to go with decor that’s simple, inviting, and subtly complements the season. Decorations that are overtly religious or strongly stylistic can make potential buyers uncomfortable or impede their ability to envision themselves in the home. Net result? Less connection and lost leads.
However, you can still use festive decor and stage your home to sell. Consider using a warm, welcoming color palette for fall and winter. For seasonality, have fun with natural imagery like autumn leaves or snowflakes. Metallic shades of gold or silver are also a great way to add a special holiday touch. Choose decor that highlights the best features of your home and distracts from its less appealing aspects.
Emphasize Cozy Qualities
As the weather becomes colder, everyone wants to snuggle up on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy spending time in the comfort of their own home. Whether potential buyers are conscious of it or not, they can be enticed by a property’s coziness. When buyers look at photographs and video walkthroughs or view the home in person, it will be much easier for them to imagine living in a house that looks like an inviting home.
Creating a cozy environment when staging your house is simpler than you might think. To get started, choose lighting with a warmer tone to create a homey atmosphere. Add in a mix of textures that are soft to the touch, like plush throws, cushy pillows, and thick rugs. Consider placing a few vases of fresh, seasonal flowers on your kitchen counter or dining table. If the property boasts a fireplace, have it lit or stacked attractively with logs to evoke a feeling of cabin-like comfort. These touches will help you create a space that homebuyers can picture themselves in and get your home off the market this holiday season.
Choose Warm Scents
Don’t underestimate the power of intoxicating scents to charm qualified leads and help close the sale on a home. Scent has been shown to increase customer intent by up to 80%. When potential buyers enter your home, they form a first impression from their sense of smell. For better or for worse, the scent will have a potent impact on their subconscious feelings about your house.
Fortunately, fall and winter have a great advantage when it comes to manipulating scent memories. For many people, these months of the year evoke happy memories of spending time with family, and you can choose scents that remind potential buyers of that contentedness. If you’re trying to sell your home during the fall months, choose seasonal scents like cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, and cedarwood. For the wintertime, try scents such as vanilla, pinewood, or spiced clove. When qualified leads step through the threshold of your home, they’ll be entranced by wafts of sweet fragrances that are sure to make a good impression.
Make Your Entrance Inviting
The entrance of a home expresses the house’s value before potential buyers even step foot inside. Proper lighting can help you create the illusion of a more spacious entranceway. In addition, consider swapping out bulky wood furniture for a translucent piece like a glass side table, which can also make the entranceway appear bigger.
If you don’t have a mirror in your home’s entryway, now is the perfect time to invest in one. Reflections fool the human eye into believing the entrance is a little roomier than it actually is. Some real estate professionals suggest that it’s also easier for buyers to envision themselves living in the home if they literally see their reflection in the space.
Adding outside touches to the entrance of your home is a great way to inspire a festive feeling as well. For fall, pumpkins, pinecones, and acorns are always in style. If you’re staging your home in the winter, spruce up your house’s entrance with container arrangements and decorative wreaths. Take great care to ensure that your decorations are non-denominational and don’t distract from your property’s most attractive features. Remember, your goal is to attract qualified leads and sell your home this holiday season, so choose your entrance decor well.
Call Motivated Sellers
Staging your home to sell in the fall and winter doesn’t need to be overly complicated. It just takes a little strategy. Create the right ambiance, and it will be much easier to get your home off the market.
But first, you need to establish foot traffic by finding new qualified leads. Set yourself up for success in the real estate business by recruiting a team of experienced cold callers. Call Motivated Sellers can raise your sales to unprecedented heights during both the busy and slow months. We are an American-based real estate cold calling service, complete with a highly skilled sales staff. Leave the hard work of vetting your leads to us so that you can focus on closing deals and increasing profits.
By partnering with Call Motivated Sellers, you can augment your online efforts and expand your reach without losing that human touch. Ready to uncover new leads for your real estate business? Contact our team today!
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