Just right for a winter sale

If autumn/winter is the time you’ve decided to list your house to sell, be upbeat about it. Sure, temperatures are dropping, and daylight hours are shortening – maybe your garden’s not even looking at its prettiest – but there are still plenty of buyers out looking.

A home must be priced right to attract buyers, but it is also vital to maintain its street appeal or buyers may simply drive away without making an enquiry or setting foot inside.

Address the gardens and landscaping. Present them as best you can for the time of year. At the very least, you don’t want the property to appear poorly maintained.

Rake up the leaves, cut back dead plants and nurture the perennials. Look for winter-flowering plants and make good use of pots especially around the front entrance area.

Potential buyers notice the overall condition of a property. Repainting your home can make an incredible difference, but it is also an expense you may not want to go to. It’s certainly a good idea to repair broken windows, though.

Have an honest look at what other factors might be making the house look tired, faded and dirty and see if there’s something that can be done to turn this perception around.

And it doesn’t matter which season you are selling in. Remove clutter and rearrange artwork and furniture to best showcase your home. Many experienced agents will recommend to de-personalise the home as much as possible when you are attempting to sell, which means removing family photos, awards and other memorabilia. The festive season is long past so the decorations will surely have been packed away.

At this time of year, when there may be less natural light, keep the home as bright as possible. Let daylight stream in through clean windows and have the interior well-lit, cheery and welcoming for evening opens.

Minor works, minor improvements and staging a property are simple solutions that can tip the balance in your direction, making your home much more appealing to the buyers who are walking in your door.

Energy bills inevitably go up in the winter. With a home buying public looking for energy efficiency, savvy sellers might like to showcase their home’s energy saving features.

Buyers may look for and welcome evidence and information about the home’s insulation. Your solar panels might be the decider when it comes to which home to buy if the purchaser is keen to run the pool pump, appliances, space heating and cooling devices, hot water system and even an electric car with solar electricity harvested during the day. Other features that are ticks for energy conscious buyers include:

• Well-sealed doors and windows • Quality drapes, curtains or blinds • Solar hot water system • High-efficiency reverse-cycle air-conditioning • ‘Smart’ electricity meter or in-home electricity display for monitoring power usage • App-based home energy management systems • Modern showerheads, which can use just five litres of water per minute compared with up to 35 litres per minute with the old ones • Modern, wide-beam LEDs that use a tenth of the energy of halogen or incandescent bulbs • Double glazing for windows, which cuts out noise, improves security and saves energy • Good external awnings, blinds or shade sails and clever planting to stop windows heating up • A swimming pool cover that can minimise cleaning, chemical use and the running time for your efficient filter pump • And if yours is an old home, did you realise that those ubiquitous wall vents are relics from the days when homes relied on heaters without flues or gas lights. Ventilation is better controlled by opening windows, not by having permanent holes in the walls.

Some say winter buyers are more serious. Whether this is true or not, a serious buyer is always likely to respond best to a well-prepared property, so sellers do themselves a real service by maximising the sales appeal of their home.