Guest Post by  Sam DeBord

Most of the rules for selling a home are the same, no matter what time of year you put it on the market. There are a few special rules for certain seasons, though. As we enter the summer, keep these ideas in mind for maximizing your warm-weather selling success:

Water like you mean it

There are a lot of great ways to conserve water for cost saving benefits. While your house is listed for sale, though, it isn’t the time to pinch pennies. If you skimp on watering in the summer, buyers won’t appreciate your frugality, they’ll just see a less-than-stellar lawn. Keep your yard looking like a professional maintains it (or hire a pro to do so for a little while). Your bank account will be much happier with the higher sale price that it brings.

Keep Cool

Home buyers are often very emotional when making purchase choices. They just get a certain “feeling” in a home and decide that it’s the right one for them. There are few things that make buyers more uncomfortable than sweating their way through a stuffy, hot home in the summer, and they usually rush through the tour to escape the heat. Your job is to extend that showing, so keep your air conditioning trained at a comfortable temperature, or leave some windows open for a breeze if it can be done securely. Leaving out some bottled water for potential buyers can’t hurt, either. Never discount the value of a buyer feeling comfortable.

Be flexible with your schedule

With summer comes the end of the school calendar, lots of vacation time, and much later sunsets. Home buyers’ showing patterns will become more varied. While you can rely on winter showings being early weekday evenings or on the weekends, buyers in the summer are often available all week long, and into the late evenings. The spring rush of buyers usually slows a bit during early summer.  Having your home ready to show at a moment’s notice, and being flexible with showing times, is essential to allowing more buyers into your home and getting the most exposure possible. Being accommodating for a short period of time can reap great rewards long-term.

Read more home selling tips and resources.

Sam DeBord is managing broker of Seattle Homes Group with Coldwell Banker Danforth, and a state director for Washington Realtors. You can find his team at SeattleHome.com and SeattleCondo.com.

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