5 Tips for Selling in a Winter Market

1. Keep walkways stairs and driveways clear of ice and snow.  This will enable a potential buyer to safely park and approach your home.  It will also visually decrease the impact of work.

2. Remove all seasonal decorations including Christmas lights.  Seasonal decorations will clutter the exterior and interior of the home and distract buyers from the architectural features.  

3. Keep basements warm.  A cold basement will appear as unusable space for living.

4. Keep entrances clear of winter coats, boots, umbrellas etc.  Excess items will clutter an entrance and encroach on valuable floor space. A potential buyer may all assume the home lacks storage.

5. Open Houses - Create a warm and inviting atmosphere. All senses come into play,  ensure the home is adequately lit and soft background  music is playing, if applicable put on the fireplace.   A fresh pot of coffee and a plate of freshly baked cookies will create an oasis from the cold that will encourage buyers to linger.

We all know that space sells, what everyone is looking for is a place to put all their stuff!  We commonly hear “I can’t afford storage”.  Well if you want to sell your home you can’t afford not to!  If can’t store excess items with freinds or family off site storage is a must!  Just think if your house sits on the market for 3 months your Realtor will most likely be asking for at least 1 price reduction lets say for a total of $20,000.  If your mortgage payment was $1000 a month the total would be $23,000 less and you  still haven’t sold your house.  If you got storage in the begining to visually enlarge the space for approx. $200 a month.  Chances are your home would of sold and you would be moving out by 3 months.  Clearing clutter is the single most important thing you can do to increase the value of your home.  Statistics prove that a staged home will sell on average for 50% faster and for 7% more money, and just think you will be half packed!

Design a Move was pleased to sponsor a hole at the Real Estate Board Golf Tourney Sept. 5/08  Below Nancy, Shelley and the Donna with the funny face.

Donna Russell will be live this morning with Tom Lucas and Don Goodman at 10:00 am on 600am radio on Real Estate Radio.  This morning topic will be Prepare your home for the Fall Market.  Listen for valuable tips to prepare your home for sale.

When there are more homes on the market than there are buyers, it is important that your house stands out from the compeition!  Here are 5 great tips to ensure your house is showing to its utmost potential heading into the fall market.

1.  Curb Appeal -  Buyers are looking for warm and inviting low maintenance homes.  It is imperative with the weather changing and leaves soon to fall, homeowners stay on top of yard work to remove the visual impact of (work).    Add some seasonal plants for color and assess the exterior lighting  to ensure it is adequate. 

2.  Complete any minor updates, repairs and painting.  Buyers are looking for Move-In ready homes,  children will be settling back into school with a focus on homework and activities,  the last thing a family needs is to move into a home under repair and disarray.    It is important to have a  neutral and cohesive color scheme that will appeal to a wide range of buyers tastes and preferences,  suitable for any buyers furnishings.  The color scheme should compliment the existing finishes of the home for example flooring, counters etc.  Accent colors can be used on feature walls and removable furnishings to add warmth, contrast and color to draw the eye through the room. 

3.  Space Sells -  Once summer is over,  it is time to pack up the portable fans, summer toys, clothing, sporting and camping equipment etc.  Buyers are looking for space!  Excess items shoud be stored off site with family or freinds or  if necessary an off site storage unit.  Nothing will increase the value of a home faster than the removal of excess items.  This will visually increase the size of a home and  broaden its appeal to potential buyers.

4. All senses come into play when viewing homes for sale, in cold, damp weather it is important to keep your home at an appropropiate temperature including basements, otherwise potential buyers will think of it as cold and expensive to heat. Put on gas or electric fireplaces to create a warm and inviting atmosphere.

5. With bad weather, out come the winter coats, umbrellas and wet shoes.  Keep your entrance clear of coat racks and shoe racks. Not only are they messy, they visually decrease the size of the entrance and draw unnecessary attention to inadequate storage that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.  

A good time was had by all at the Design a Move Company BBQ, as seen below, our precious Shelley enjoying the sun, good food and the highlite of her day was winning the hurdle race without spilling a drop.

Click photos to enlarge.

Design a Move was honored to sponsor a hole at the 11th annual, “Building Industry golf tournament (BIG 11). HELD WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2008.

This fundraiser is organized entirely by volunteers, so 100% of the proceeds flow through to the selected charity, this year $76,000 was raised for Children’s Hospital.

Below:  Shelley, Nancy and Donna of Design a Move
Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

As discussed this morning on Radio Real Estate, statistics show that 85% of buyers shop the internet prior to contacting a Realtor. Therefore in this buyers market where there are more homes for sale than there are buyers, staging and professionally photographing your listing is of the utmost importance to ensure your home stands out from the competition.

Please check out our portfolio of vacant spaces with the Design a Move logo to view our photographers work and view his website for more photographs at Vancouver Showcase Photography
Design a Move

Donna Russell, the resident decorator of 600am Real Estate Radio Show will be speaking this Saturday with Tom Lucas and Don Goodman. The subject matter will be the importance of staging and professionally photographing your home for sale in a buyers market.

Listen live this Saturday , July 26th to 600am radio between 10 and 11 am.

Design a Move