Listing Your Home During the Holidays

Four local real estate experts share their advice for selling your house during the holiday season

Written by KENDALL MCKINNON

THANKS TO ITS EVERGREEN ECONOMY, soon-to-be Savannahians are always flocking to the coastal city for job opportunities, and these new locals need homes. Regional real estate agents agree that Southeastern homeowners can rest easy in the region’s stable market, even during the holiday season — a notoriously tricky time to list or purchase a home. Four experts provide their tips and tricks to best navigate holiday listings. 

Cultivate Holiday Cheer

Listing a home can cause stress for many, but looking ahead with optimism and hope are key to keeping you grounded. The holidays can help with that — the market might typically move more slowly during this time, but Brooke Powell, associate real estate broker at Ashley Brooke Properties, says there is a silver lining.

“One benefit you do have as a seller in these slightly slower months is that you have more serious buyers coming through. You don’t have as many looky-loos,” she says. They are serious, and if they find something they like, they’re probably going to make an offer.”

Appeal to Seasonal Senses

The season’s cooler weather is the perfect time to lean into a feeling of coziness, and for prospective buyers to better imagine their families enjoying the home together. Make open houses a warm refuge by lighting a fire, simmering cranberries and rosemary on the stove, baking gingerbread cookies in the oven or even hosting a hot cocoa bar. Soft, non-holiday music can create additional ambiance while guests wander the home.

For Annie Rockwell and Kelli Weiss, associate brokers at Daniel Ravenel Sotheby’s International Realty, attention to the details makes all the difference. “Taking these small steps will give your home that extra sparkle that buyers love during the holiday season,” Rockwell says.

List with Timeless Imagery

Mitch Jacobs, vice president of sales and guest relations at The Landings, makes a key distinction when considering the question of holiday decorations: “There’s living in your home, and then there’s listing your home.”

Deck the halls at home to your heart’s delight, but the expert consensus is to keep holiday decor minimal in your listing photos. Your home should read as clean and beautiful, and too many novelties or Christmas lights can look busy. The difference is key to ensuring potential buyers can envision themselves living in your home. To avoid dating your listing, consider taking additional photos without festive touches to swap out come January.

While holiday decorations can add charm, keep them minimal. You want to showcase your home’s features and appeal to all buyers, regardless of their holiday preferences. A simple wreath or string lights can add just the right amount of holiday magic without overdoing it.

Book Professional Services

If you want your home to look its best, professional staging and photography are a must, and our experts often include these services in their packages. Certain add-ons might also suit your individual property, such as video walkthroughs to highlight ample space or aerial photography if the home is within walking distance of downtown or a waterway.

Tend to the Details

For Rockwell and Weiss, one of the simplest ways to spruce up your home’s curb appeal is to tend to typically overlooked details: Ensure there are working light bulbs in your porch lights, maintain outdoor furniture and consistently rake leaves. Keep your lawn and porch area tidy, clean the front door and power-wash surfaces if possible.

Powell agrees and recommends the same for listing photos, adding that because grass and other landscaping tend to go dormant during winter months, consider touching up exterior shots to keep the lawn looking lush. 

“So as long as there is actual grass there, I will have the photographer green over the grass, just like they would add a blue sky if it wasn’t perfectly sunny that day when they took pictures,” she says.

Price It Right

As with any season, our experts recommend a weekly check-in with the local market. Take a look at other homes for sale in your neighborhood or similar homes across town. Compare your price to your competitors’ and consider whether the number on your sticker needs to change.

Jacobs observes that during the holiday season, cost considerations can be especially encouraging in light of tax benefits that may motivate buyers to purchase before the end of the year. “For certain write-offs and deductions, getting them in for that calendar year can make a big difference, depending on the person’s circumstances,” he says. 

A house sale is enough to lift holiday spirits, putting cash back in homeowners’ pockets. “If the timing is right for you, then I wouldn’t shy away from listing during the holidays,” Jacobs says.