Celebrating Halloween While Trying To Sell Your House

By: Lisa Gray
Submitted: 2008-10-10 17:20:57
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

Sometimes selling your house comes at an inconvenient time, like your favorite holiday. In the case of Halloween, there are some easy and fun ways to decorate and celebrate without detracting from your home's appearance during showings. If you are planning to dress up your place for Halloween night or for a Halloween parties, this article can give you some hints and tips.

Even if you love it, avoid all really scary, gruesome decorations, or ones designed to give an unsuspecting person a shock. Keep things light and removable. Despite the urge to decorate for the season, avoid cobwebs, spiders, rats and other "haunted house" paraphernalia. Try for more of a "harvest" theme and smiling ghosts, pumpkins, etc. This promotes a positive atmosphere instead of one that might turn some buyers off.

If you are setting up your house for a party or trick-or-treating, do it the day of the event, if at all possible, and try to avoid having a showing that day. If your Realtor can't negotiate a different time, try to keep the decorations to a minimum until after the showing. Ideally, your decorations will be able to be set up and taken down in a short period of time.

Stick to decorations that can be quickly taken down, or that can blend in with a fall themed staging. Some ideas are removable window decals, orange and purple lights wrapped around a railing, fall flowers such as mums, Halloween-themed signs or posters (no thumbtacks, please!), and decorative lanterns that can double as guides to your front door.

Jack-o-lanterns should have candle substitutes burning in them and be watched carefully for signs of rot if you carve them some time before the Halloween holiday. You don't need potential buyers being turned off by a "dead" pumpkin! Bowls of apples and nuts are also great fall accents.

If you have the time and inclination, attaching a small card that says "Home for Sale!" and gives the name and address of your Realtor to bags of Halloween candy can be a great way of getting information about your home out in the neighborhood. Who knows - people in the neighborhood could have friends looking for a place!

Decorating for Halloween when you have a home to sell can be somewhat harder if you're accustomed to going "all out", but with a little flexibility, you can decorate in a way that both acknowledges the season and doesn't turn off any buyers!

Vox Real Estate is a popular source for information about Austin real estate. Visit VoxRealEstate.com to search Hyde Park real estate listings and find information about local schools and neighborhoods.

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Real Estate category

  • The Silver Lining of the Foreclosure Crisis - By: Leslie Eskildsen
    They need capital to not only buy the home, but also to restore it. Foreclosure homes can range from an empty, abandoned building to a trashed house with garbage strewn all over the place, missing fixtures and a galloping case of mold or termites.
  • Why You Should Invest in Spanish Property - By: Craig Edmonds
    The reasons why people choose to invest in Spanish property are varied. Those wanting to spend their vacation in this beautiful country know all about its beautiful beaches and romantic culture. They want to experience its golden sunsets and warm nights with the sea air wafting through the curtains.
  • Additional Inspections to Get Before You Buy That Home - By: Greg Smith
    Hiring a licensed pest inspector to check the home for wood destroying organisms such as termites and mold is always a good idea. Termite infestation wreaks havoc on the wood structures in your home, while keeping their presence a well-kept secret. Often it isn't until a great deal of damage has been done that you discover that you have termites.
  • The Ins & Outs of Sale Contingencies - By: Greg Smith
    A sale contingency is a critical contract addition for a buyer who owns a house that he or she needs to sell before closing on a new one. If she doesn't add this provision to the contract, she faces the possibility of having to pay two mortgages. With a sale contingency in place, the contract for the new home becomes null and void if she is unable to sell her home.
  • Problems With Mineral Rights Leasing - By: Anna Poelo
    Problems and disputes cannot be wholly avoided in mineral rights leasing.
  • Milwood homes for those wanting to settle - By: Joe Cline
    It is your typical Austin community: landscaped lawns, tree-lined side-streets, kids playing, couples strolling, all awash in Texas sun on a summer's day, and you scout around for 'for sale' or 'for rent' signs.
  • Rosedale: An Austin Neighborhood By Any Other Name - By: Joe Cline
    Rosedale is simply enchanting. The small cottage-like homes offer a charming, homey, and exquisite appeal. The neighborhood offers a mix of the old and new Austin.
  • The 4 Parts of a Business Plan for Real Estate Agents - By: Cheri Alguire
    This model of business planning and goal setting for Real Estate Professionals breaks the process down to four parts and seventeen steps.
  • Tenant Screening - the first line of defense - By: Garret Lloyd
    Getting a tenant for an unoccupied apartment is definitely a good idea. But getting good tenants is of prime importance in order to ensure safety and peace of mind in the long run.
  • What is online reverse auction? - By: Ron Victor
    Reverse auction deals with internet auction and e-purchasing. This is also known by many names like procurement auction, sourcing event, e-sourcing, and e-auction. Generally in an auction, purchaser is allowed to place a bid on an item on the amount that he is willing to pay so that he can buy that item.