NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE WEEK: Midsummer selling: Addressing airflow, outdoor spaces and refreshments
Selling a home in the summer offers distinct advantages over other seasons. There’s typically more interest, especially from families looking to settle their housing plans before the start of a new school year.
Warmer weather helps too, but it’s also important to make sure summer doesn’t expose certain problems with the home you’re hoping to sell. Take special attention to these particular areas before you decide to invite potential buyers into your home.
Brightness and airflow
We’ve been talking about airflow more often thanks to COVID-19, though this particular tip applies to life beyond the pandemic. When temperatures rise, it’s easy for many homes to feel stuffy, especially those without air conditioning or ceiling fans. Opening the windows at night and in the morning can help your home “breathe.” Just make sure to close them again on a calm day once the temperature outside exceeds the indoor temp. Watch out for air quality deterioration related to potential wildfires as well. Maybe it goes without saying, but you definitely don’t need a bunch of unnecessary smoke in the house.
Summer is also the time to celebrate the sun, so open the curtains and blinds! Most people don’t want to live in a dungeon, and you can supplement natural light with brighter decor. Even a home with dark floors, cabinets and walls can be lightened with accent pieces and furnishings. Decluttering (something you should do when selling at any time of the year) can also enliven a space. For example, piles and piles of newspapers sitting in front of your window will block the light, but thanks for collecting all of my articles over the years, Uncle Jack.
Showcase outdoor spaces
Landscaping gets annoying this time of year, especially if certain parts of the yard won’t hold an appealing green color in severe heat. Some crispy spots may be unavoidable, but you can keep an outdoor space looking “tight” by limiting overgrowth (especially the kind that burns easily) and eliminating dead patches of weeds and brush. Try to gut those weeds growing along the cracks of your driveway too, as that difficult-to-remove growth can spoil a home’s curb appeal.
Highlight outdoor entertaining areas like decks, barbecues, fire pits and play structures. While you may not have the budget to expand the deck, re-staining it or adding a fresh coat of paint can turn an eyesore into an asset.
Staging considerations should also be applied to the outdoors. Utilize furniture that accentuates space and functionality, and make sure to put the yard toys away before a viewing.
That bright summer light might also reveal some visually unpleasant issues with the house itself. Consider cleaning, powerwashing, new paint and replacing/refreshing elements that are actually broken. “Move-in ready” fetches top dollar, but you can help yourself quite a bit by reducing the workload of a new owner. On the other hand, if you’re OK with taking “fixer upper” money, then chill out and drink some lemonade under your broke-as-all-get-out gutters.
Manage your bugs, too. Wasps and other stinging little beasts can be difficult to contain, but you also don’t want a potential buyer being chased around and stung by a Murder Hornet. Are we still worried about those? 2020 stinks, man.
Open houses
Choose the time wisely. If you don’t have air conditioning, consider a time earlier in the day to avoid the stuffiness and temperature issue. If you do have air conditioning, try to schedule an open house at an ideal time for your home’s sunlight exposure. Be careful not to blast that AC too much, as too much chill can make an indoor space feel a bit like a morgue.
While COVID-19 considerations should be limiting your choice of goodies and refreshments, offering ice-cold bottled water and other sealed drinks is a nice touch for folks battling the heat between showings. If you do offer food, consider packaged treats and be sure to offer copious amounts of hand sanitizer. Oh, and sorry to bring this up again, but MASKS. Wear them.
What if you spend the time to do all the things you should do to stage your home and the calendar says “September?” Don’t worry! Warm weather in the Inland Northwest tends to linger into October, and in a market like ours, a well-priced home staged well will generate interest.
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Stay tuned for our final stretch of our Summer Living on Lake Coeur d’Alene series. Let us know about more standout neighborhoods and developments that we may feature in an upcoming Neighborhood of the Week. Contact Tyler Wilson at twilson@cdapress.com.
