Top 3 Winter Home Showing Tips for Waterloo Region Home Sellers
What time of year you choose to sell your Waterloo Region home will to a certain extent determine how you go about preparing your home for showing. Is it easier to sell your home at the height of the summer rather than in the dead of winter? Not necessarily, you just have to go about things in a slightly different way. Here then are some tips for showcasing your home for sale in the best possible way when the weather outside is not so warm:
Clear Away the Wintry Mess
Not only should you make sure that the actual entrance to your home is free of snow and ice but that if potential buyers will have to park on road that that is navigable too. If the winter weather is just bitterly cold still take the time to spread a little grit on your walkways because you never know when that puddle will turn into potentially dangerous ice. And if it’s raining? Put an umbrella stand at the entrance to your home and lay down a rubber mat so that muddy water is not trodden all over your newly cleaned carpets.
Offer a Warm Welcome
Keep your Waterloo region home for sale at a nice, warm temperature when you are showing it to potential buyers in the colder months of the winter. Setting your thermostat a few degrees warmer than usual (but not so much that it feels like entering a tropical forest) might be a good idea but in doing so it’s better to heat the house up and then set the temperature at normal. This should prevent the heat from kicking on again when the buyer is present, because, let’s face it, some HVAC systems are loud.
It also might be a good time to consider investing in a programmable thermostat if you don’t have one already. This will allow you to save money by only heating your home in this way when it is going to be shown even if you are miles away at the office, thanks to the fact that most can be controlled from your smartphone. This relatively inexpensive investment in home tech often has another benefit as well. An increasing number of Waterloo region homebuyers are actively looking for high tech when viewing homes and the fact that you have already ‘taken care’ of one big home automation features will be a real plus in the eyes of many of them.
Offer Glimpse at Better Weather
If there are three inches of snow on your deck or your pool is closed up and covered it can be hard for a potential buyer to envisage just how wonderful it actually is for entertaining in the summer. Or how lush and beautiful the lawn and garden usually look.
If you have a picture of you and your family out on that deck or enjoying your pool at the height of the hot weather, or simply some great shots of the garden you originally took for Insta this is where you should break that “no personal pictures” rule and display them somewhere near the spot where potential buyers will stand to peer at the deck or garde (even if they don’t venture out onto it) to give them a glimpse at just what great amenities these are when the time is right.