As lovely as the holiday season is, there is an inevitable drawback to the festivities: holiday stress. When you throw closing a listing into the mix, you know you are in for quite a headache. We’re here to tell you that selling a home during the holidays doesn’t have to get in the way of the festivities. In fact, when sellers, Realtors, and stagers work together, it is amazing what can happen.
Take it Easy on the Holiday Decorating
Whether or not the property is currently occupied, it’s tempting to feel like it needs to be decorated to suit the holidays. But that could actually do more harm than good. Not everyone celebrates the same holidays, and decorating with religious imagery can be particularly tricky territory with potential buyers who do not follow the same traditions. Simple seasonal decor, such as fall gourds or winter wreaths, are a great compromise and save you the hassle of going the extra mile with extravagant holiday decor. Plus, who wants an expensive electricity bill from running Christmas lights on a property you are about to sell?
Lean On Your Partners
The holidays are a time of togetherness. That applies to your family as well as your greater personal and professional network. And, when you are selling a home during the holidays, it applies to the relationship between sellers and Realtors. It is crucial for sellers and Realtors to be understanding and upfront with one another at any time of the year, but open communication and trust is especially important during the stressful holiday season. Sellers, especially if they have owned the property for decades, may feel like the expert on the home, but it’s important for them to trust their Realtor’s knowledge of the current market.
Use Your Digital Presence to Your Advantage
You never know who in your network might be (or know) the perfect buyer. Use every platform you have—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—in addition to your official listing to get the word out. If you’re currently renovating or in the midst of construction, share progress pics to generate hype for your property before it even hits the market. Between the holidays and the ongoing pandemic, social media use is higher than ever, and using that to your advantage can help you get a holiday listing off your hands even faster. Plus, the more of the selling process that happens online, the less time you have to spend coordinating in-person tours.
Don’t Strive for Perfection; Strive for Efficiency
Nothing is more stressful than holiday plans gone horribly awry. When you’re balancing selling a home during the holidays with your own travel schedule and buyers’ travel schedules, it helps to accept early on that nothing is going to go perfectly. There will be scheduling conflicts, cancellations, and it will overall be a harder selling process than it likely would be other times of the year. That is just how it is. The best thing you can do is aim for as clean and efficient of a sale as possible given the circumstances and handle the bumps in the road as they come.
Trust Your Stager
One of your best allies during the holidays is your stager. They are a third party to your seller-Realtor relationship and can give you clear, unbiased recommendations for how to make your property maximally attractive to buyers. They have their own network of people they can advertise your listing to, a network likely full of Realtors and even potential buyers. Having worked throughout the local community, they know what to expect this time of the year and how to approach this difficult season. With a knowledgeable stager on your side, selling a home during the holidays doesn’t have to ruin the most wonderful time of the year.
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