Naughty or Nice: Holiday
Home Staging Tips
According to the retail-calendar, the holiday season begins somewhere around the first of November, and ends during the first week of January. The decorations, the glitter, the holiday music, movies and commercials, all conspire to inundate your mind with tinsel-cluttered thoughts.
Everyday activities can take on a more hectic, stressful note; a count-down frenzy seems to overtake even the simplest of tasks. Whether you celebrate or not, there is no detour around the holiday season. So what does this mean for major life events, such as listing your home for sale?
While it is true that statistically December is not the best time to sell your home, it is also true that this month has the lowest number of residential listings. The holiday season is after all, a very busy time for many people and this can be a deterrent to list their home; the extra obligations, commitments, and perhaps even time away with family, all combine to make people think twice.
Some individuals choose to delist their home if it is already on the market, or choose to delay listing, if it isn’t. However, sometimes there simply is no other option, but to stage and show a home during the busy holiday season. So is it possible to leverage the season of joy when selling your home? Are there specific holiday home staging tips?
Pros to Selling Your Home
During the Holiday Season:
- As there are fewer homes for sale during the months of November and December, there is less competition. Your home will automatically stand out from the crowd, simply due to the diminished number of listings in your neighbourhood. Additionally, it is easy for potential buyers to notice your spectacular home; winter is the best time to purchase a home and a great season to spot the perfect property.
- Any buyer who ventures out in the cold and busy holiday season will be a motivated one. The spring season may include curious shoppers, but the months of November and December provide serious purchasers looking for a home.
- The cozy, cheerful ambience of a home decorated for the holidays, can create an emotional bond with potential purchasers. It can evoke warm, holiday memories of happy family gatherings. It can then become easier for buyers to envision themselves living there, imagining their family enjoying festive, holiday moments by the tree.
- This can be an opportunity for the buyers to get a true sense of your neighbourhood. Towns and cities often host holiday activities, such as tree lighting ceremonies and parades. It is a great idea to leverage this holiday spirit, and include it in the home’s listing information.
Cons to Selling Your Home
During the Holiday Season:
- If you celebrate the holidays, it can be difficult to find time during those busy months, to schedule showings and to keep your home clean and tidy.
- Additionally, if you partake in decorating for the season, it can be problematic to find the sweet spot for how many ornaments to include in your staging. Note: a professional home stager can assist you in determining the ideal style and amount of decorations.
Holiday Home Staging Tips:
- It is important to keep in mind that your home will impress purchasers when it is clean and uncluttered. This is not altered during the holiday season. Keep your decorations to a minimum, otherwise you run the risk of distracting the buyer and perhaps even, turning them off.
- Although holiday decorations can create a cozy, warm atmosphere, too many can cause a sensory overload and distract from positive features within your home. Glitzing a home with over-the-top decorations is like wrapping a house in an ‘ugly holiday sweater.
- Similarly, when staging a home it is always advised to depersonalize, in order for purchasers to envision the home as their own. Personal holiday decorations such as your children’s homemade ornaments, should be packed away for next year.
- The goal of home staging is to present a space that will appeal to the widest array of potential home buyers. As not everyone celebrates the same holidays, any decorations should be non-religious in nature.
- Your holiday decorations should compliment your décor, rather than clash. It is generally advised to decorate with neutral colours such white, gold and silver, rather than with red and green.
- Trim your tree with a cohesive colour scheme. This creates a professional, tasteful presentation.
- Holiday decorations should match the style of your home. In other words, do not use farmhouse-style decorations in a modern space.
- Home staging is used to highlight the positive features within a home, and during the holiday season your decorations can be used as another way to emphasize these characteristics. For example, if your home has a fireplace, highlight it by decorating it with green garland and festive white lights.
- Curb appeal is important during the holiday season as well. Decorate the front door and porch with tasteful, non-religious decorations, and string white lights on any well-groomed shrubbery. This is a great opportunity to create a warm, cozy welcome to any potential buyers.
Beyond-Decorating Holiday Home Staging Tips:
- In order to maximize space, it is always recommended to partially empty out closets and cupboards. Therefore, do not hide presents in your closets as this defeats the purpose of prior decluttering.
- The holiday season provides an opportunity to utilize virtual home staging. Display photos of the home during the rest of the year, in order to demonstrate how it appears when not decorated for the holidays.
- Staging during the holiday season creates an opportunity to evoke positive emotional responses in buyers. Ensure all five senses are included in any decorating scheme: sight, taste, smell, touch and sound.
- Flickering fire light, freshly baked holiday cookies, warm apple cider on the stove, evergreen boughs, and soft, classical music in the background, will all combine to create a warm, cozy, and inviting ambience.
The holiday season can provide unique opportunities for creating an appealing home. Holiday sights and smells can evoke favourable memories and help to create emotional bonds.
With the assistance of an UltimateStager™, your space can appear festive, cozy and inviting to any potential purchaser.
