Spring and summer are often considered the best seasons for selling your home, but with our current strong seller’s market, it’s always a good time to list! Houses are barely hitting the market before they are snapped up, and in most areas, the available housing inventory is not currently keeping up with demands. This is great news for sellers, and you can rest assured that even though many potential buyers are distracted by their kids’ schooling needs and the upcoming holiday season, there are still many others who are feeling confident and ready to buy.
So how do you make your house stand out among the others during the fall season? We have some great tips for what you can do to make sure that your home generates interest and brings at least your preferred listing price, if not more when it comes time to sign on the dotted line.
Clean Up Your Yard to Increase Curb Appeal
Lawns and yards require a little extra attention and maintenance in the fall. Whether you tend to handle such matters yourself or use a lawn care company, you’ll likely need to do some of the work on your own in order to make sure everything looks neat between visits from the yard crew. Rake or blow dead leaves each day and make sure they are bagged and removed, rather than left in piles. You want to be ready for spur of the moment showings without having to rush out and start raking. You will also want to clean up any flowering plants that are no longer in their prime by removing dead leaves and blooms.
Shrubs and vegetation should be trimmed, especially if there are any bushes or trees that are blocking the street view of your home, or worse, blocking a walkway. Your lawn care company likely performs this type of task upon request, or you can use an electric trimmer to do the job yourself. Proper trimming of trees and shrubs is essential for your home’s inside appearance as well. If you have any windows that have been partially blocked by vegetation, you are not making the best use of readily available natural lighting.
Make Your House Stand Out with Fall Flowers
Once you’ve cleaned up the remainders of the spring and summer flowers and vegetation, you’ll want to replace it with something just as eye-catching. Luckily there are many flowers that bloom well into the winter, and look perfect in a fall setting. The most popular such flower that comes to mind are chrysanthemums, commonly referred to as simply “autumn mums.” Mums do not require much specialized care, and they bloom for a long time. Marigolds are another example of an ideal fall flower. Both marigolds and mums come in yellow, which is an accent color known for attracting home buyers. Marigolds and mums can be planted in pots and placed along your front steps or lining a walkway, or can be made part of a larger season display with uncut pumpkins, gourds, hay bales and corn stalks.
Bring the Fall Accent Colors Indoors For Showings
Create a warm and inviting fall look inside your home by accenting with traditional autumn colors. This doesn’t mean you need to purchase new furniture or paint the walls of a room that otherwise would not be in need of a fresh coat of paint. You can easily and affordably use small accent items to achieve this look instead. Bring your neutral toned furniture to life with throw pillows in shades of red, orange, yellow and mossy green. Drape a quilt or autumn colored blanket over a chair. Freshen up your dining room table with a harvest themed centerpiece. These small touches will make a major difference when prospective buyers come take a look.
Avoid Holiday Decorations While Selling Your Home
Autumn color accents in your home are welcoming, but overdoing it on the holiday décor can be overpowering and even off-putting. Remember that not everyone celebrates Halloween or Thanksgiving. Even buyers who may enjoy a good haunted house or scary movie may not like your particular decorations, and having your home identified too heavily with just one holiday can leave some viewers unable to picture their own belongings from various seasons filling your home. If you’re looking to decorate for Halloween, experts recommend keeping it simple and non-scary. Mums, gourds and hay bales are likely all you will need to feel festive without being over-the-top.
Pay Proper Attention to Lighting When Selling Your Home in the Fall
In the fall the days are getting shorter, and with kids in school more buyers will be asking for late afternoon and evening showings. You will want to maximize the natural sunlight that is available by opening all blinds and curtains throughout your home. To make the most of this, make sure your windows are clean and free from any stray handprints. If you have screens make sure those are clean as well, or you may even want to consider removing them completely during the home showing process.
Since the sunlight will be waning earlier than during summer showings, make sure you have the right artificial lighting in your home as well. Leave the lights on when you leave before buyers arrive, and likewise make sure all TVs are turned off. For any rooms with dark corners and a lack of windows, consider adding an inexpensive lamp or two. Feel free to experiment with the type of lighting and bulb you are using to find what works best for your home. Bathrooms tend to look best with bright daylight bulbs, while living spaces and bedrooms should best be shown in softer white light. Your goal should be to create cozy and bright spaces. And if you have recently upgraded any of your lighting to LED bulbs, make sure this is indicated in your listing, and let buyers know the lights will remain with the home.
Before Listing Your Home, Have Your HVAC Serviced
You’ve likely not needed your home’s heater turned on in months, and a lot can happen over the course of the warm, then hot spring and summer seasons. Your home’s HVAC system will be inspected as part of the selling process anyway once you have a potential buyer, but it is much better to find out about any problems ahead of time so you can fix them prior to listing. An annual maintenance check by a licensed service person will confirm if your system is ready for the winter ahead. Even if your HVAC system’s heat setting is working perfectly, we all know that musty smell that overpowers the house when it is first turned on each fall. A system checkup and a fresh filter will help rid your home of the stale scent of a heater that hasn’t been used in months.
Clean and Service Your Fireplace
Just like your HVAC system, when your home is inspected pending a sale, your fireplace will be checked out thoroughly to make sure it is in good working order, so finding and fixing issues ahead of time is important. Vacuum out any cobwebs that may have gathered due to lack of use, and consider calling a professional chimney sweep for additional cleaning. That’s not the only reason to get your fireplace up and running though. Wood burning fireplaces might not be everyone’s cup of tea because of allergies. However, if you have a gas fireplace, light it when you know buyers will be coming through. This small touch will give your home an even more cozy and inviting feel.
Achieve the Right Seasonal Scent When Staging
You want your home to smell good before buyers come to see it, but you don’t want several smells colliding. Scents that are too strong or mismatched might be unpleasant to visitors, and can also make it appear that you are covering something up. Stick with a basic fall scent, and keep it mild in strength. One of the best and most authentic ways to achieve such a smell in your home is to have freshly baked pumpkin bread or an apple pie prior to showings. For most of us this will not be a realistic ask, so fake it by leaving cinnamon sticks simmering on your stove throughout the day until just before you exit for buyers to arrive. Yes, you can take a shortcut and burn a candle instead, but the scent doesn’t last for as long or travel quite as far throughout your house.
Show Off Your Home in Other Seasons
Do you have beautiful shots of your home’s exterior taken during other seasons? If so, show them off! While your own snapshots may not fit with the professional photography used in your home’s listing, printouts of your house in various seasons can be made available near the entrance of your home, or you can frame a few prints to be placed on an entryway table. Look for photos taken during the height of the spring blooming season, on a sunny summer day, and even with a light dusting of snow if you have it available. This will help buyers picture your home in more picturesque weather.
Be Ready to Move When You List
Finally, it is important to be aware that home sales in the fall may move on a slightly accelerated timeline compared to those that sell in the late spring and early summer. Fall buyers tend to be aggressive and ready. They have their finances in order and their loan squared away. They are likely interested in a fast closing so they can get settled in quickly mid-school year. Even if it means you will need to secure a storage facility and temporary housing before your new home is located, purchased and ready, you do not want to delay and possibly lose a sale.