Winter Selling Tips

by Grant Graham

If you haven’t noticed by now, Sudbury now has a lot of snow on the ground. We have been fortunate this year with the snow coming a little later than last year. Now that it is here, there are some important things to consider when buying and selling homes.

There was a horrific story in the paper last year about a couple who purchased a house in the winter. The house had a fairly large property that had some green space behind and looked very serene in the winter snow. Once the spring came and the snow melted, they found that the snow was covering a giant junk yard of years of garbage that had been discarded into the woods. The cost to remove that was incredible and not in their budget. A home inspection would have never discovered it as the snow covered it all up from view. The sellers never disclosed that the junk was there. As a seller, you should disclose everything about a house when selling it. If the buyer can prove that you knew of a problem and didn’t disclose it, then there could be some legal repercussions.

A good way to put buyers at ease is to provide them with summer pictures

of the house and property. If you are buying, ask your agent to get you these from the seller.

Summertime pictures usually help to show off the home, especially if it has some nice gardens and curb appeal. You want to showcase the home at its best so that the buyer can dream of their life in that space. If you are selling waterfront, include a picture of the dock, boating, fishing, or whatever else they might be doing outside. Buyers will want to see the condition of the roof, the driveway and walking paths. You can leave the pictures on the kitchen or dining table for the buyers to check out when they do a tour.

Here are a couple of other winter time selling points to consider. Be sure to do a great job of clearing the snow when selling your home in the winter! Get rid of all icy spots with salt and sand. Make it safe for buyers to come in and explore your property. It is also a good idea to keep the heat set at a comfortable room temperature so that it is nice and cozy for the buyers looking at the home. Turn on the fireplace. If you are selling in December, make sure your holiday decorations are out and well positioned to make the home feel warm and welcoming. And if you can, have your garage clean and open so that they can imagine driving their cars in out of the snow.