A Guide to Selling Your Home During the Holiday Season

The holidays are a time for festive cheer, family get-togethers, and, sometimes, selling your home. While selling during the holidays may seem less than ideal, some advantages exist, such as more motivated sellers and less competition. Because of that, it can be a great time to put your property on the market, but you have to do it right. There are things you can do during the holiday sale that will make it easier to get a reasonable price and move with ease.

Keep the Décor Simple

Decorating for the holidays may seem like a no-brainer, but you don’t want to go so over the top that it looks like a Christmas store inside your house. Festive decorations are good, but you want to keep things simple, as you would when selling at any time of the year. That unique decoration you love may not gain the same esteem from prospective buyers, and if anything is off-putting, they might not be able to picture themselves living in your home.

You also want to be mindful of all cultures and religions during the selling process. You may celebrate a specific winter holiday that many other people don’t. In that regard, keeping the décor simple and non-specific is best. Try decking your home out with understated decorations that fit the theme of winter instead of one specific holiday.

Curb Appeal, But Make it Safe

Curb appeal is vital to selling a property. It’s the first impression potential buyers get when pulling up to their potential future home, so you want to spend time making the outside of your property look as inviting as possible. You also want to keep things safe for potential buyers. No one wants to fight through mounds of snow and ice to get inside, and slips and falls can cause injuries.

Make sure that, alongside cleaning and decorating the outside of your house to make it look inviting, you also clear any winter debris that could be a safety hazard. That way, people can feed their curiosity about what the inside of your property has to offer by getting inside safely and soundly.

Respect the Buyer

People buying during the holiday season are often more motivated for personal reasons, often due to changing living situations or selling their own property. That’s why it’s vital to understand where the buyer is coming from when selling your home during the holidays. You want to respect the buyer by pricing the house to sell. That way, interested buyers won’t have to worry about affordability when looking at your property.

Another way to consider the buyer is by making your home a warm and safe haven from the cold. They are in and out of properties all day, so walking into a home that feels like refuge will be much more inviting than homes that keep the heat down during showings to cut costs. You may also want to be flexible with closing dates. While it’s not always possible, giving the motivated buyer the chance to choose their own closing date is a great way to seal the deal.

Selling your home during the holidays can be stressful on top of the hubbub of the festive season, but making a few tweaks to how you approach it can make it much easier to enjoy the process.

Thinking of making a move this holiday season? Reach out to us - The Warren Team - A tradition of trust! 

Customer Service or Customer Experience?

Last week I escorted my young niece to Montreal to support and encourage her on a big interview in Montreal.  I decided to make the trip worthwhile and take a day or two in Montreal to enjoy the pulse and energy in the most cosmopolitan city we have east of Ottawa;)

I think the whole reason I love travel, hotels, window shopping and dining out is to experience service.  Or to have an experience as a customer.....Having been work raised in high end, exceptional, service oriented retail businesses, I am always curious about who is doing what and who is the best.  So when I am away, I delve in and look for those service moments.

Truthfully, I have fallen in love with Montreal and it was the experience after experience over 48 hours with everyone we met.  I was wowed!

But really, I fell in love with Pierre Beauchamp at the Hotel Omni, Mont Royal.  Pierre has been their ambassador from the beginning when it opened as a Four Seasons to its present ownership as the Hotel Omni.  Thirty nine years of making guests fall in love with him, the experience and the hotel.  He had me at the front door with his first hello and his first giggle.  And I thought I had a laugh!

Pierre is the epitome of everything we all strive for in customer service.  He knows its the experience, the little things, the genuine love of what he does, the genuine pride of who he represents.  He knows he is the one who can make the guest feel like a million, like the only one.  He makes a difference.  He didn't just do it with us, he did it with James Brolin and Barbara Streisand, with Super Tramp, with Stevie Wonder.....Really?  He is even more special because it doesn't matter who you are, every guest is equally important. 

I came back to work today with a renewed sense of purpose.  A quest to always look for more ways to make the selling and buying experience better than the expectation.  To make it an experience, not a transaction.  I know we genuinely care and our clients truly get that sense, but I believe we can always do better, always strive for more.  Sometimes, you have to step away, get that personal experience, in order to remind yourself, of why you do what you do.  And to keep looking for new moments we can create for our clientele, who we care so much about.

Kudos to Montreal, kudos to Hotel Omni and super kudos to Pierre...it is because of you, that I will return!  You are a one of a kind, an exceptional gentleman, a superlative role model for everyone who works at the Omni...and may I say, your service is an art.  And there are not enough artists out there!  We all need to strive for this level of execution.   

I love you Pierre!

A Plethora of Reviews this Month! Thank you!

Helping people is what we do!  Its what we love to do.  We don't need accolades, we just love knowing we did make a difference and we did get the job done and fulfil our clients goals!  Thank you to Rhonda and Phil, and Janique and Ben and Carly, for your 5 star reviews!  We appreciate your relationships, support and taking the time to send us a review to share!