Holiday Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Faster this Season

selling your home during the holidays hmm
I did that too
in this video I’m gonna share with you
what holiday decor you should leave up
or shouldn’t when it comes time to sell your house
because I know you wanna celebrate the holidays
but you don’t wanna scare away the buyers
so
if you’re wondering how to balance the holiday decor
with some home staging style this video is for you
hey there home sellers
welcome back
to another episode of the Creative Home Staging Show
my name is Kasha Mcdaniel
and today we are talking about holiday decor
because we are coming up on that season
Halloween just passed us by
we’re gonna have it heading to Thanksgiving
and Christmas and if your home is on the market
or is going to be soon we did the same exact thing
and I want to share with you
some of the do’s and don’ts of holiday decor
when it comes time to selling it during the season
so I know
a lot of you
may be wanting to put up all your favourite things
but you’ve done so much work up to this point
to declutter it to clean it all up
put away the excess items
and then now it’s time for the holidays
and you’re like oh
but I want to celebrate but we need to move
but we need to stage how do I know what to do next
Kasha please help me out
yeah I’m here for you
because we had the same situation when we were moving
we were renting our house out
and so for the basically the month of October
I was busy staging our house
to get it ready for pictures
and then for showings and then
of course after that
we’re like okay
well yeah
um yeah
we have the holidays coming up
you know Thanksgiving right
and so we did all the decluttering
removed things out packed things up
donated sold the stuff that we needed to
and then it was time for the photographs
and it was a beautiful day
and of course
it’s right after Halloween is when this happened
I got the pictures taken
and then the showings ended up being um
actually it was just one day basically
it was literally it turned out to be like
that Monday before Thanksgiving
or maybe it was the Friday before Thanksgiving
I don’t know it’s one of those two
but it was really close and so
we told our real estate agent
that we didn’t want any showings
like during the whole Thanksgiving week
because we were having family come down um
before we moved
we didn’t want to have to deal with guests
having to deal with making sure the houses
you know the beds are made and the house is clean
then we have to leave we’re like nope
all bets are off for Thanksgiving week
and you can do the same thing too
okay this is your home right
you wanna celebrate and make those memories right
but when it comes time to staging your house
during the holiday season
I’ve got some DOS and don’ts
that I wanna share with you
and get started on those
what holiday decor is okay to have up
when you’re staging your house
and this is gonna hurt
you’re gonna yell at me and throw something at the TV
and I’m sorry but I’m gonna say none
for the pictures for the pictures
I promise you please don’t
don’t turn off the TV don’t turn it off
okay um none
there should be none
there should be no holiday decor in your pictures
for all your online photos
okay alright
breathe breathe
you’re like okay
okay okay
I promise you it’s okay
and here’s the reason why
because you don’t want those pictures to be dated
I’ve seen photos of um
Christmas decor for a house
and this house was still on the market in March
and it showed a Christmas tree and other things
and stuff like that and I’m like oh
that day that picture
that house has been on the market for a while
just based on the pictures
because the Christmas tree is still up
now I know some of you love to keep up your trees up
for a little while
or maybe you change it out for the different seasons
and the different things okay
but for the pictures there should
not be any holiday decor whatsoever in those photos
I may get some disagreement from real estate agents
or other home stagers and that’s perfectly fine
but this is my strategy and this is what happened
and we had a feeding frenzy
of people coming to our house
to see it and rent it okay
and we thought we were a unicorn
we thought our house is gonna take a while
we were all set for that
because we’re kind of on the higher end of a rental
it was a bigger home
it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere
it’s not in a very big subdivision
not like house
house house
house house
it was we have 10 acres
our neighbors have 10 acres
our neighbors have 10 acres
so there’s a lot of space
okay so we thought we were unicorn
we had a feeding frenzy on that one day of showings
that we were just like oh my
and the offer that came in
was above the asking price for the rental
okay so
believe me when I tell you that I had no holiday decor
even though we were right before Thanksgiving
we could have decorated for Christmas
I had none it was as if it was a neutral kind of colors
you know you couldn’t tell what season it was
when you took those pictures seriously
and that’s what we’re trying to do okay
you can decorate after the pictures are taken
yes yes
whether it’s Halloween Thanksgiving or Christmas
but but
but but haha
I’m gonna hold you off
we’re gonna do some minimal things okay
we’re not gonna go overboard
so you can so when the pictures are taken
there’s no holiday decor okay
it should have been neutral
it can fit any you know
decorating style you know
that kind of a thing with the house
so you staged it
you’ve done all the cleaning and decluttering and
and made it look fantastic
take those pictures then OK
for the showings you can have some holiday decor up
OK that is perfectly fine
but it’s after the pictures are taken
OK so I’m gonna show
I think I showed you this one picture of the house
this house was staged but it had Christmas stuff in it
okay and then the buyers will wonder
well why is this house
what’s wrong with the house
what’s you know it’s
it goes stale
and that’s some of the words that you may hear
realtor say that it’s been on the market for too long
they probably drop the price
but when you see visual things of Christmas decor
and it’s March there’s a problem
okay so what can you leave up for showings
if it’s the Christmas time frame
you know Halloween
so Christmas I’m gonna focus more on Christmas
cause I know a lot of you like to decorate for that so
and I’ll touch on Halloween Thanksgiving
but for Christmas if you have a Christmas tree
that’s perfectly fine okay
don’t go overboard on like
15 Christmas trees
that you may be used to having in your house
one is perfectly fine
one one big one
whether it’s a fake life it doesn’t really matter
have it show off the space of
where you can celebrate the holiday with your family
right show the buyers look
this is where we put our tree
that may not be the place where they put their tree
but it shows them hey
we kind of move the furniture around
we’ve kind of centered it here
or maybe it’s out on the porch
maybe it’s in the front wherever
but one one Christmas tree
okay alright
um some other things that you can do are um
to get you in the spirit
maybe you have some throw pillows or blankets
that are Christmas themed
right I have those
I have red plaid blankets
I have um
the Christmas pillows that I have
but again don’t go overboard on those pillows
okay so a couple of those are perfectly fine
ours in the living room or the kitchen
like maybe the hand towels are green and red
or in the dining room maybe you have
you know a poinsettia on the
in the middle of the table
okay again
this is after the pictures are taken
you can put the stuff out
don’t use that poinsettia in the middle
you know for the pictures okay
some Garland on the banister is perfectly fine
if you have staircases you know
in your house um
Garland outside you know um
where else can you oh
on the fireplace you know
if you have a fireplace and mantle that’s real nice
a wreath on the door is perfectly fine
you can totally do that um
if you have for the outdoors
you know if you have a nice reindeer that’s lit up or
you know those Grapevine ones or like
the metal kind you know
those are perfectly fine
using holiday soaps in the bathroom
is another thing that you can do
we’re talking about minimal things okay
we’re not going overboard
and I’ll explain
what would be something that is going overboard
so think minimal okay
a little bit here a touch there
okay and I know
I know you’re thinking but yeah
it’s still my house I still wanna celebrate it
I know
and you will in the next house that you’re moving to
okay
at least you have a little bit of something out there
to enjoy it and make it feel like Christmas
okay that’s fine
um for Halloween
again minimal things
so if you wanna have like
you know maybe the pumpkin outside on the front step
that’s perfectly fine um
or if you have maybe some
you don’t want to leave like
the cobwebs out because again
you just did all that cleaning
I wouldn’t put up fake cobwebs
and then the real spiders come
you know EWW
okay so you definitely wanna
you know minimal things
Thanksgiving
you kind of got more of the warmer colors anyway
so you may have some reds and oranges and yellows
whether it’s the throw pillows
maybe it’s a blanket or here or there
or maybe it’s the hand towels
um so think about that
if you are thinking about doing that kind of stuff
for Halloween and Thanksgiving
in your house again
after you’ve taken the pictures
let me interrupt in here real quick
as I’m going through these holiday decor
you may be thinking Kasha
you talked about decluttering
cleaning and stuff like that
what are some other things to do
where do I even get started
well I do have a free home staging guide
that you can download right now
to get you started
maybe you’re not sure what needs to be done
this guide is a great how to start staging your house
now as what it’s called
it’s a free guide you can download it
I give you um
10 home staging tips in there
I talk about the home improvements that you should do
um and creating a timeline to get you moving
because you got to think about well
how long is this all gonna take
okay so download the staging guide
it’s totally free and I’d love to help you get started
so let’s move on to the don’t do these things
okay so we’re not gonna do a yard full of crazy
blow up reindeer snowmen
gnomes whatever
please don’t do the Grisswald family yard okay
no no no no
even though it is very festive and crazy
we don’t again
that’s clutter okay
your favorite C word I know
I know okay
so the outside should be like I said mentioned
you know a nice
you know reindeer statue or us
you know or if you have like
you know those box type um
planters with the hedge you know
type of thing if it’s
you know something holiday
you know remind you of something nice
like the wreath outside perfectly fine
okay um
you don’t wanna go overboard on the inside
with Santa’s Village right
maybe you collect all those little houses
and you put the little lights in there
and things like that and it looks beautiful
but again that’s clutter
and we’re trying to not have your house cluttered
for the showings okay
so you can have minimal maybe you have one little house
you know um
like maybe it’s on the credenza in the dining room
with some candles or something like that
maybe it’s your favorite one
perfectly fine but please don’t put out twenty
twenty five of them in front of the TV stand
you know on the TV stand or something like that
please don’t please
just don’t okay
I I promise you
you will get them you will see them later
just not right now as you’re selling your house
okay
um also
I’ve seen Santa figurines
like all over the place
big small
huge ones I’m just like
oh my god this place is taken over by Santa
no please
just no
okay
again clutter right
um and then
I’ve seen bathrooms with Christmas themed towels
and rugs and wreaths and just everything
just threw up Christmas in the bathroom yet
no just I again
you will see it later hold off
and if you’ve gotten to the point where
maybe you’ve had the showings
and you’ve already gotten
you know a
an offer and everything like that
that’s fantastic
you could probably pull some of those things out
but by that point really
you gotta pack it up anyway
okay right
cause maybe you’re moving right after the New Year
that’s one less thing you have to repack
cause it’s already packed and ready to go
okay so think about it that way
if that helps you
you know scratch that itch of but but
but please
please no no
okay okay
so I gave you a couple of examples of do’s and don’ts
you can still celebrate the holidays
while your house is on the market
we did definitely
we didn’t move out until um January
after mid January is when we moved out
so we got to celebrate the holidays in the house
one last time okay
we still got to have the festivities
you know the friends
the cooking the baking
and everything like that right
so again
talk to your real estate agent
about setting aside certain days
if you have family coming over
if you’re having a holiday party at your house
make sure there’s no showing schedule then
that those days are blocked off
you’re like look
no haha
I need this time not to stress over people
come traipsing through my house
while it’s on the market during the holidays
you have perfectly legal intent to
to say that okay
your real estate agent may not be happy
but again your house
your rules yes
but as a as a home stager
I’m trying to help you sell your house
um this is what worked and works fantastic
for the pictures make sure there’s no holiday decor up
after the pictures are taken during the showing
you can have some minimal holiday decor up
no problem and then
celebrate the holidays in your house
before you move into your next one
okay so hopefully this has helped you figure out well
okay Kasha
you know what no
if you have more questions
I do offer a home staging course
it’s all online
it started off with just the four main rooms
and a bonus room I may be adding more later on
but for right now
it’s out there available for you to get started
if you’re kind of wondering
well Kasha
how do I even stage a living room
or stage a dining room you talk about it
and it doesn’t give you the
you know in different videos
this course does it give you to all at once
tells you and you can watch it at your own pace
for how long and as many times as you want
maybe you didn’t quite get the
well where
you know what do I do with this
can I move that do I have to
you know keep that or take that out right
I cover all of that in my home staging basics course
that you can download
and watch as many times as you want
so if you’ve enjoyed this video
I hope you like it leave a comment of
maybe some things that you’ve seen walking around
maybe you’ve seen some houses
that have just had too much Christmas
too much festivity
again I’m just trying to help you sell your house
at this point so that you can move on and
and still celebrate the holidays okay
I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and I will talk to you later bye