What can you do over the holidays to prepare for the spring real estate market?

The Creative Home Podcast | Episode #190

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The holidays are a great time to be with family and friends one last time before you move. But in the back of your mind, you have this nagging feeling that you could be doing something after the last Christmas ribbon is ripped off. Since you probably have some time off after the holidays, there are a few things you can do to prepare for the spring real estate market and not wait until the last minute.

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What can you do over the holidays to prepare for the spring real estate market?

I know, some of you are thinking that it’s too early to think about spring when you haven’t even finished Christmas. I am a planner and I like to get things lined up. Ask my kids when we travel anywhere. I will do all the research of our vacation and plan on out where to go, buy the tickets, figure out transportation, you name it. Same thing goes for staging your home. The more you do ahead of time, the better off you are. Now let’s get into the podcast about what you can do over the holidays to prepare for the spring real estate market.

1| Start de-Christmasizing after the New Year

Pack up all the Christmas gear and store it off site or neatly in garage/closet. You obviously won’t be using it for another year, so this is the time to make sure you keep what you want and throw out/donate excess you don’t want to take with you to the new house. Did the lights stop working? Do you have too much leftover decor? Donate (or throw out) those items too.

2| Donate excess toys before the spring real estate market begins

If you have kids, then they probably got a lot of toys again. Or maybe they just outgrew them. Go through their toys with them and decide which ones they want to keep and which ones can go to another child that would love to have that toy. It also teaches them to share and give to less fortunate children who can’t afford to have as many toys as they do.

3| Pack up holiday platters, dishes

You aren’t going to need these after the holidays so you may as well pack them up too. Buyers will be looking through your cabinets to see how much storage you have. If you have overcrowded cabinets, they will think you don’t have enough storage. Just remove the items you don’t use (or sell/donate). You’ll be surprised what items you find you no longer use and feel better when you remove them from the house.

4| Thin out closets of summer clothes before the spring real estate market

Since it’s winter time, you won’t be wearing summer clothes. If you don’t change out your wardrobe each season, this is a good way to get started on packing up. By removing summer attire, you will not only reduce the amount of items in your closet, you may find that some pieces no longer fit, you don’t like or never wore. This goes back to the cabinets overflowing. Same thing goes for the closets. Go through your kids closets, master closets, linen closets and the front door closets.

5| Go through garage and decide what you are moving to the next home

If you are downsizing or not going to have much of a yard, think about the lawnmowers and golfcart that you might not need at the next home. We have 10 acres and if we move, we would have to sell a tractor, riding lawn mower and many more items. Now is the time to do the same thing here before the spring real estate market.

6| Make sure yard is de-gnomed and looking its best without debris

For those of you Harry Potter fans, you know what I mean by de-gnomed. But for the rest of you, this means your yard needs to look pristine. Grass will not be growing in the winter, but there may be some drainage issues that pop up or leaves leftover from the Fall. I talk about curb appeal in my free checklist, 30 easy tips to get your house ready to sell. I’ll leave that link in the show notes so you can download it. Start working on the gutters and clean up the yard (including those holiday inflatables) so you don’t have such a huge task ahead of you later.

7| Power wash sidewalks, house siding and front porch

Snow may be hindering some of you at this time of year, but if you can, rent a power washer or hire someone to help you clean up the outside of your home. We had sidewalks that looked like brand new after power washing them. Siding can also get dingy if they haven’t been washed in years. Give the outside of your home a good scrubbing to make it look like new.

There are many more things you can do, but this is just what you can work on during your time off over the holidays. If you haven’t downloaded my free checklist, 30 easy tips to get your house ready to sell, check out the link in my show notes.

If you are selling your home during the upcoming spring real estate market, the downtime during the holidays is a great way to get started on your home. Don’t leave it all for the end but do little by little. For more tips check out my free checklist, 30 easy tips to get house ready to sell!

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