Staged living room with a gray sofa, black accent chair, and large windows overlooking bare trees.

Preparing Your Home To Sell In The New Year!

December 19, 2018

Red model house surrounded by pinecones, evergreen branches, and red berries.

When the tree has been taken down and the decorations are put back in their boxes, life starts to get back to normal as we approach the new year. There's always a surge of activity in the real estate world around January, many buyers and sellers have finished sitting out the festive period and are ready to resume their real estate adventure.

Here are a few items to put on your to do list if you're looking to sell at the start of 2019.

Don't Wait For Spring To Start Cleaning

It should hopefully be no surprise for you to learn that it's a good idea to keep your home in a state of near-perfect cleanliness while it's on the market. Most sellers do a very good job of keeping up with the chores 11 months out of the year, but over the festive period, it's all too easy to let things go a little. Christmas parties, an influx of visiting friends and family, and accidents caused by perhaps having one sherry too many can turn what was an immaculate home into something that's simply â€œcleanâ€.

As soon as the decorations come down get ready to do a deep cleanse of the entire property. Scour and scrub the festive period away and get your property back on top form as soon as possible.

Store Your Stuff

Unless you're on the naughty list, Santa will have brought you and your family a whole heap of great gifts over the festive period. This almost certainly means that you've got more â€œstuffâ€ to store in your home. When you're not selling your home, it can take a little while for your gifts to find their proper â€œplaceâ€ (and usually this isn't a problem).

However, you are selling your home...

Regardless of how fun the novelty knitted pillowcase that nana gifted you looks in your bedroom â€“ there's a good chance that potential buyers aren't going to appreciate it. Ensure that you've got a plan to hide your new gifts that aren't buyer friendly at a moments notice.

Give Your Yard A Little Love

While we are blessed with better weather here in Georgia than many other parts of the world, there's still a good chance that you've let your yard work get on top of you over the festive period. Don't feel too guilty about this, for most people the choice between mowing the lawn in-between rain showers and staying inside with a cup of eggnog is a no-brainer â€“ after all, it's Christmas.

So whenever you've got a spare hour or two and the weather is on your side, try and get outdoors to give your yard a little love. It will make maintenance easier come spring-time!

Maintain A Cozy Temperature For Showings

While we're sure that no one reading this is wearing several layers of clothing indoors throughout the winter months, frugality is fashionable these days, and there's a chance that you've got your thermostat set a few degrees below average.

On a wet and windy day, buyers are going to appreciate coming out of the cold into a healthily heated home. Don't go overboard here, there's no need to make your sitting room into a Swedish sauna, but when you know you've got buyers coming over to view your home crank up the thermostat slightly to around 73 degrees to keep things cozy.

Bonus Tip: If it's cold, wet, and generally miserable outside when buyers are viewing your home then offer them a hot drink when they arrive and light a few candles beforehand to crank up the coziness even further.

We had the pleasure to serve over 300 families with their buying and selling needs in 2018. We'd love to assist you with your real estate needs in 2019, and get your home SOLD! Contact us today!