The Christmas period is often the time to reflect on the year and can be when people start making plans for the future, which can include selling their home.
For those who are looking to put their home on the market straight after Christmas, it’s important to take the right steps to make sure the process goes smoothly. So Dawn Platt, Sales Manager at Chestertons Estate Agents, has shared her on the best time to put your property on the market and how to present your home to achieve the best price and to create a great first impression and the ultimate “wow “factor.
The best time to go live on the property portals
Boxing Day is a popular time for property searches, so if you’re prepared, it can be a good day to put your house on the market. If you do decide to launch on Boxing Day, do bear in mind that you will want to have some new photographs taken once the Christmas holidays have passed to freshen up the listing. The market usually picks up the second week of January once the festivities have passed and people are getting back to their daily routine.
When to take down the Christmas decorations
If you are looking to market your property in the New Year, the best advice would be to take down the Christmas decorations before your photographs are taken. This is a great time to de-clutter and put things away into storage.
When selling a property, you want to dress it in a way that potential buyers can see themselves living in the house. So taking down lots of family photographs is a great way of doing that. Nice fresh white bedding for the bedrooms, side tables and lamps on in the photos gives a very cosy look and feel on the viewings.
In the kitchen, make sure you clear the worktops too, but leaving the essentials such as a coffee machine, toaster, kettle, and even an open recipe book next to the hob to make it feel homely.
If you look at how developers dress show flats, they’re selling a lifestyle – nice hand soaps, white towels and candles. Dressing the dining table for dinner for the photographs is also a good opportunity to do this.
All of these tricks will help buyers visualise themselves living in the property and will help you achieve the best price and a quicker sale – remember you only have one opportunity to make a first impression. So making your property stand out in the crowd will give you a head start on your competition.
Kerb appeal
Buyers create an opinion about a property in the first 60 seconds of seeing it, before they’ve even stepped through the door, so a broken gate or garden full of weeds and chipped paint on the front door is not the kind of impression that is going to fill a potential buyer with excitement for the rest of your property.
Before listing your property it’s a good idea to walk around the house and put yourself into a buyer’s mind and make a list of jobs that need to be done. It’s often the case that you’ll see past things that need attention when you have lived in a home for a long time. We suggest you walk around each room and make a list of any cracks or general DIY that can be rectified before you go on the market.
It’s also important to consider the appearance of your garden. This can be difficult when putting our house on the market after Christmas as the weather can play a big part in making the exterior feel dark and gloomy without bright colourful flowers and freshly cut grass, so it’s even more important to make sure it’s tidy.
It’s worth taking a bit of extra time to get the house looking as great as it can instead of rushing to get it on the market. Whilst when selling you will not want to start changing kitchen and bathrooms, it may be worthwhile to freshen up some of the paintwork and any walls that are particularly dark and making the space feel smaller.
Finally, it’s important to speak to your estate agent to clearly understand the process of putting your house on the market. Different locations will have different suggestions based on the local market, so we recommend going into your local branch and talking it through.
