It’s that time of year again when families are busy decorating their homes, baking cookies, and making plans to visit loved ones. All the hustle-and-bustle can make it difficult to focus on selling or purchasing your home! Here are some helpful tips for selling and buying during the holidays with a little less stress this year.
Selling Your Home:
If you’re thinking about putting your home up on the market during November through January, here is what you should know:
1. Make sure your home is in its best condition to attract potential buyers. Accentuate those holiday-inspired rooms and don’t overdecorate! You can also do some minor sprucing up before adding it as a featured listing on our website.
2.Be prepared to accept fewer offers than usual. Most people, however, will be spending their money on gifts or vacations, leaving them with only limited funds for a down payment and closing costs. If you really want to sell your house quickly, you should definitely consider negotiating these factors.
3. Get your home listed as soon as possible to make sure you get the most exposure! Although the holidays are considered a slower time for selling, now is still prime home-selling season. Plus, a new home is quite the holiday gift!
Buying A Home:
As tempting as it might be to buy yourself an early Christmas present this year, buying a house can be very stressful! Here are some helpful tips for not getting yourself into more trouble than you can afford:
1. Don’t fall in love with a house that doesn’t fit your needs! The holiday season is the time of year when we like to fantasize about living in that perfect dream home. However, if your favorite cozy two-bedroom villa turns out to be a three-story mansion, then think about how much money and time it would take to make all the necessary upgrades and repairs (especially during the holidays). This will definitely affect your ability to stay within your budget! You should also make sure you have enough space for all of your furniture before committing to buy.
2.Before submitting an offer, make sure to apply for financing and get pre-approved first. Nothing is more frustrating than getting into a bidding war and then realizing you don’t have enough time to secure finance. To avoid last-minute stress, consider these dates as seriously as any other day of the year.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, selling and buying during the holidays can be very challenging. However, if you are mentally prepared to accept these limitations, this might be a great time of year to look into one of these transactions! You just need to know the right way to approach it so that everyone wins in the end. Happy house hunting!
