Halloween is nearly here, decorations are being put up, and the ghosts and goblins are getting ready to come out and play for another night of spooky fun.
We're always on the lookout for innovative tips and techniques to help our clients sell their home as quickly as possible, and Halloween presents a few unique opportunities (and a couple of challenges) that are a good idea to take note of.
Let's get started.
Trick Or Treat?
For better or worse, trick or treating is a part of Halloween. Every year an entire army of children walk our streets in spooky costumes demanding a tasty treat for their efforts. Regardless of your opinion on trick or treating, there's a huge advantage to this activity if you've currently got a home on the market.
Many of the younger trick or treaters who will be roaming around in costume will be accompanied by their parents who are keeping an eye on them and making sure everything stays safe and fun. This can often create a large amount of footfall around your home that you may not experience at any other time of the year.
You never know who's going to be walking past, so it's a good idea to brush up on one of the essential parts of selling a property - creating curb appeal.
There's a good chance that any potentially interested buyer that happens to walk past your house on Halloween will be standing there for a good minute or so while their kids attempt to get some candy. As such, they're going to get a better look at your home than someone that's just slowing down while driving past to check it out.
Ensure that around Halloween everything about your property that's visible from the street is in perfect condition. It might be a good time to paint the fence, cut the grass, and generally spruce things up a little (and of course, ensure your signage is in place too).
Decorate With Care
There's nothing wrong with adding a little bit of spooky decoration to the outside of your home throughout Halloween. In fact, it's encouraged by some real estate agents – especially if you're on a street that generally makes quite a bit of effort for Halloween (as it creates a feeling of community).
That being said, keep your decorations tasteful instead of outlandish and unusual. A few pumpkins that have been carved with care look great on your doorstep, but an over the top scary zombie graveyard in your front yard is perhaps best left for when your house is not on the market.
Be Ready To Rock
When it comes to decorations, you should probably do your best to ensure that they are mainly exterior. Potential buyers can ask for a viewing at very short notice. Keeping your house in a state near perfect cleanliness at all times is standard practice when you've got a property on the market.
The all too familiar act of rushing around to spruce things up a little bit before a viewing is only going to be made more difficult when you've got Halloween decorations to contend with.
Ensure that you can hide any internal decorations very quickly as they're generally not a good idea to have on display when a potential buyer is viewing your home. It can be a little difficult for people to imagine a new life in your home with decorative skeletons and spiders all over the place.
Also: Because you're going to need to hide these decorations quickly, it also means that things like spray-on cobwebs and window paintings or frostings should be avoided if possible.
