How would you like a winter’s sale?
Change is in the air, the leaves are falling and the mornings are just starting to get frosty…
Time to get the heating on, pull out the thick jumpers and sell your home.
Wait, sell you’re what!? We hear you shout through the muffles of the woolly scarf, but yes, winter definitely is a great time to sell your home!
Although winter is traditionally not seen as the best time to market your property, this year especially, it could just be the best time of the whole year…
Over the last 18 month’s or so the housing market across the country has been suffering from a lack of supply, driving prices up and meaning that there are far more buyers in the market than homes to buy. In fact recent figures suggest that there are, on average, 19 buyers for every single home, so, marketing your home in the winter months could mean you have less competition, more potential buyers and the possibility of achieving a much higher sale price than you would potentially get in the traditionally busy New Year rush. Perfect for a winter’s sale!
During the build up to Christmas last year, property sales soared by 38%* and here at Hannells, we found buyers for over 260 homes, so you can bet that the festive period is very active, in fact, traditionally, the major property portals see page visits more than double during the holidays.
With this in mind, marketing your home in winter can be a very positive experience, but it isn’t without it’s difficulties. Bad weather and dark days can hamper the presentation of your property and without careful planning your property listing might not have the impact you’d hope.
Luckily, we have created fabulous winter marketing strategies for thousands of properties over the years and we’ve put together a list of three key things to think about when looking to get your home sold in the winter months.
Presentation 
Presentation is always of the utmost importance when it comes to getting your home to stand out in front of potential buyers, but in the winter, when gardens don’t look their best, the days are dark and dreary and everything has that sleepy feel, it is more important than ever!
You can use this to your advantage with a few minor adjustments to make your home stand out as a haven from the cold.
Make it warm and inviting, make sure the lights are on for viewings and the heating’s turned up a notch so it feels cosy and inviting, make sure the gardens are raked of fallen leaves and the moss is scraped off the patio.
Give your home the feel of somewhere that potential buyers long to be after they have dragged themselves out into the cold and you’re well on the way to achieving a winter’s sale. Viewers may well have battled the slush and snow and finally, when they arrive, they want to be greeted by a warm welcome. The psychological benefit of stepping out of the cold and into the warm cannot be underestimated, after all it’s so much nicer to arrive to view a home with the lights on, some candles burning, a fire crackling and the heating on than it is to turn up to a cold, empty house and stumble around with numb fingers looking for a light switch! Take some inspiration from these wonderful winter homes.
Photography 
We have already run though the importance of presentation, but it really is so important it needs mentioning twice!
Once you have made the decision to market your home and have created a vision of loveliness for your potential buyers to view, you need to pay as much attention to how the property is going to photograph. The winter months can be a tricky period for photography, super bright day times and low sun can cause ugly shadows and tricky lens flare, gloomy dark days can make a home look unappealing and uninspiring and early sunset times can make photography almost impossible.
The simplest way to turn this into an advantage is to make sure the agent you pick to market your home has some experienced, well trained, and professional photographers on board. They will be able to turn any weather to their, and your, advantage, and create images that say come inside! Rather than run and hide!
So declutter, light that fire, spread some comfy looking cushions on the sofa, clear the gardens, clear the surfaces, and help the photographer make the most of your beautiful home. It’s sure to stand out like a beacon against the cold, dull and boring photos of other properties and you’ll be one step closer to a winter’s sale!
A big tip when having photos done at this time of year is to pay close attention to the time of day for the appointment, too early and you may get strong winter sun, too late and the light might have faded too much, so ask for advice from the photographer and try to arrange the optimum time of day to get the best images.
Another top tip is to choose an agent who has their photo’s enhanced, it’s virtually impossible to capture a perfect image in camera, so we at Hannells have all our images professionally edited, just to make sure we truly make the most of your home. Take a look here for some top tips on how to prepare your home for photo’s.
Maintenance 
What are buyers looking for in their next home? The right location? The right size? The right price? Well yes of course, that’s why Estate Agents produce brilliantly informative property listings and target them to specific potential purchasers, but one thing that is usually in the mind of a potential buyer, even if it’s at a subconscious level, is what could go wrong and what is it going to cost me?
Property maintenance can be expensive, and all those minor niggles are easy to overlook when the sun is shining on a warm summers day, but come a damp cold winter and those stains on the wall shout expensive damp proof treatment, the over grown patio screams landscape gardening bills and the boiler that’s been on its last legs over the summer literally yelps that the heating won’t come on when its needed most!
Make a list of the small jobs around your property and make sure they are taken care of, have the boiler serviced and keep the paperwork handy to show potential purchasers, after all, we want to make potential buyers see only the positives in calling this their new home, so anything we can do to minimise the threat of costly bills is always going to help. You can find a list of top maintenance jobs to do during the winter here.
So to recap, winter can be a great time to sell and if you follow the steps above you’ll have the best looking, most attractive and most welcoming property on the market! That’s the key to a winter’s sale!
To find out more about how we can help you take the chill out of marketing your property and help you achieve your moving experience this winter, why not click on the easy instant valuation tool below or call and book an appointment with one of our valuations managers? We can guide your move every step of the way!
If you want to kick start your festive Moving Experience, start your search with Hannells.
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*Zoopla
