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Selling Your Home in Winter - Tips and Techniques

Most experts agree that it's best to sell your home during the spring and summer. Home buyers with children, for example, usually try to move during the summer when the kids are out of school.

That's one reason to sell a home during the summer. For this and other reasons, selling a home in the winter should be avoided whenever possible.

But sometimes, you just don't have a choice. Sometimes you have to sell the home in winter for any number of reasons. Maybe you cannot afford the home any more and need to sell it fast. Or maybe you have a job transfer that requires you to move during winter.

Whatever the reason, you need not despair. While selling a home during winter does present certain challenges, it is by no means impossible. On the contrary, if you follow the selling techniques and tips in this article, you should be able to sell your home in the winter nearly as easily as you would in the summer.

And who knows, depending on the market you are in, you may even sell the home fast in spite of it being the winter months.

1. Selling in Winter Requires Patience

Homes don't sell as quickly in the winter as they do in the warmer months. That's just a fact you'll have to live with. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the speed with which a home sells depends on the local real estate market.

But the bottom line here is that you will have fewer buyers visiting the home when selling in the winter (as opposed to spring or summer). This means the home could be on the home longer, so you will have to be patient with the process.

With that being said, the subsequent tips and techniques for selling during winter may shorten the time on market and help you secure a quick sale! So let's move on.

2. Contrast the Cold With the Warmth

Believe it or not, you can actually take advantage of winter conditions to help sell your home during the colder months. The best way to do this is by showcasing the warmth and coziness of your home.

Picture this scenario. Potential home buyers John and Jane visit your home with their real estate agent. It's cold and windy outside, the kind of weather that makes you want to hunker down someplace warm. They open the front door and walk inside. The house is warm and well lit. A fire crackles softly in the fireplace. The smell of gingerbread cookies -- recently baked on offered up on a glass plate -- fills the air.

Now doesn't that make you want to say "Aaaaaah"? It will do the same for buyers. So simply by showcasing the warmth of your home you have a better chance of selling during the winter cold.

You can think about it in terms of both psychology and physiology. The first physical impression will be one of warmth and relaxation, just as soon as the buyers walk in. This will lead to a favorable mental impression as well, and the buyers will carry this impression with them through the rest of the home.

3. Protect Floors From Winter Elements

When selling a home in winter it's perfectly acceptable to ask people to remove their shoes upon entering. This is especially important if you live in a snowy region of the country. Slush, gravel and salt (from those de-icing trucks) can wreak havoc on carpets and wood floors.

This will help you in two ways. First, it shows buyers that you care about the cleanliness of your home. And if your floors are noteworthy in some way (new carpet, nice wood floors, etc.), the buyers will immediately notice this feature. You can be sure the first thing they will do when seeing a "remove shoes" sign is to examine the floors.

You can almost hear them saying: "Oh yeah, this house does have nice carpet / floors ... let's remove our shoes. Who knows, they might be our floors someday soon."

This technique is easily put into practice. Simply use an attractive welcome mat inside the front door, and put a sign someplace visible that says: "Please remove shoes when entering." Or, if you're the creative type, you could say something like this: "The weather outside is frightful. Removing your shoes would be delightful."

However you handle it, this is a practical and useful tip for selling your home in winter -- especially in an area with snow or rain outside.

4. Home Selling Safety

In closing, let's touch on safety issues. Depending on where in the country you live, selling a home in winter may require some extra effort on your part. If you're selling in Southern California, this may not apply. But if you're selling a home during a New England winter then you'll likely have extra safety issues.

Ice and snow are the biggest concerns here. So if you're selling in snowy or icy conditions, you need to keep the driveway and walks shoveled and free of ice. Remember, you are responsible for safety of visitors to your home -- and that includes potential buyers.

Conclusion

Some people will tell you that selling a home fast during winter is impossible. We say it depends upon two things -- (A) the amount of effort you put into it, and (B) the type of real estate market you are in.

So one cannot say across the board that selling a home fast in winter is impossible. It's a case-by-case situation. Want proof? We sold our home in Maryland during the dead of winter, in snowy conditions. We used the tips and techniques in this article to sell the home fast and for full asking price. So it can be done!