The winter season is often considered the slow season of real estate. While the number of overall transactions tends to slow down, the real estate market in the Chicago area is still very much alive. There are still many people to buy, and many home owners looking to sell. There are still a few things that you have to look out for if you are still trying to sell your home in the winter months. Below are a few tips for you!
Landscaping
Just like in the spring season, landscaping is still an important part of selling a home. Even if the home looks immaculate on the inside, potential buyers may still be turned off to your home if they first see terrible landscaping when they first pull up to see the home, as it is the first impression that they will see. How can you improve this? First, always make sure that you shovel your walkways if it snows, which happens often in the Chicago market. No potential buyer wants to walk through 6 inches of snow just to make it to your property. This may seem like common sense to some, but remember that you are attracting a lot of extra foot traffic to your home, to you need to be extra careful when clearing a path to your home. Also make sure you put down some salt to melt any ice that may form to avoid any potential injuries.
On a side note, you might want to think about toning down the holiday decorations if you are selling your home. While all the lighting may look wonderful to you and your family, it could serve as a huge distraction to potential buyers!
Keeping the floor clean
During the winter months, the weather tends to be messier than in the spring and summer months. If you are not paying attention, having a lot of buyers in your home can lead to them constantly tracking snow and rain into your home. Your solution may be to make everyone who enters take off their shoes, but some buyers may actually take offense to that (I’ve seen it happen personally). Ultimately, if you are trying to sell your home, it is your responsibility to keep the floors clean, and not the buyer’s responsibility to avoid making the floors dirty. Consider leaving a mat at the front door for your potential buyers to wipe off their feet. You can also throw down temporary runners down for your potential buyers to walk on, leading to an easy cleanup. Remember, it is all about making an impression on the buyer, and doing these things show the buyer that the home is really well taken care of.
Heat
In the Chicago market, a major point for most potential buyers is to make sure the heat in any place that they live works well. No one wants to live in a home where they are going to freeze for 3-4 months out of the year. Or even worse, a home that is going to cost a fortune to heat up, due to poor insulation. When your buyers come to visit, make sure your heating system is in condition, and on full display for the buyer. I’m not saying to turn your home into a sauna, but make sure they know your heating system works comfortably. If there are any problems with your system, now is the time to fix it, before you get too far into selling your home. As I mentioned before, heating is a huge selling point with buyers.
While some may believe that selling a home in the winter is hard, the real estate market is still operating at a steady place, with plenty of sales being made! As always, if you have any questions, or are thinking about selling your home, feel free to contact me today!