Selling your home means a lot of preparation, from increasing your curb appeal to decluttering to prepare for showings. Selling your home during the winter holidays comes with some additional considerations you may want to take to encourage buyer interest and steer clear of issues.
Holiday decorations are a great way to make a house feel like a home, but holiday-specific decorations like a menorah or Christmas tree, can cause a few unexpected consequences. If a buyer follows a different religion than you, it may make them less able to see the home as their own. Part of the preparation sellers do (like decluttering and removing unnecessary items) is to help potential buyers have the visual space to see their own lives and belongings in the home. Personal or religious decorations could influence a buyer’s mindset when imagining their future home.
When decorating for the holidays while your house is being marketed to buyers, you may want to consider waiting to put up any personal or religious decorations until you’re in your new home.
Outdoor Decorations
You may love your outdoor decorations, but not all buyers may agree. A crowded lawn of decorations, inflatable or otherwise, may leave a bad impression with a potential buyer before they even step foot in your home.
Candles and Scents
There are a wide variety of holiday candles and scents available, and you may have a particular candle or scent diffuser that gets you into the holiday spirit. Just like decorations, taste and preference here can leave a bad impression if your favorite scent comes across as particularly strong or harsh for buyers as they tour the home. If you’ve been somewhere with a smell you can’t stand, you know how quickly you try to leave. When selling your home, you want buyers to feel welcome and relaxed, able to take their time imagining their new life in your current home.
Your Dinner Table
Holiday dinners and hosting are a big part of the holiday season, and you can use that when setting up your home to show! Take extra time to set the table in your dining area as though you’re about to have friends or family over, encouraging the buyer to imagine their own friends and family gathered around the table.
Fair Housing and Holidays
Personal and religious decorations can also have unexpected implications for fair housing (or discriminatory housing) issues. Personal decorations and photos reveal demographic information about you and your family, including protected classes, which can unfortunately open an opportunity for fair housing violations to occur.
Protected classes include race, gender, sexuality, religion, and more in the state of Maryland. If anyone treats another party in the transaction differently because they identify, or seem to identify, as a member of a protected class, it is a violation of the Fair Housing Act. These violations in housing can include advertising a home only to preferred groups of people, misconduct during property appraisals, and more.
Learn more about fair housing at the national, state, and local levels on our webpage!
Winter Weather
While Maryland doesn’t usually get big winter storms in December, Maryland weather is unpredictable. Winter weather, including icy conditions, needs to be addressed to ensure buyers are able to tour the home entirely and safely. Make sure that the exterior of your home is safe for buyers by clearing any snow, ice, or other hazards on the driveway or walking paths. Using rock salt where needed can also help prevent slips or falls for yourself and others.
