Real Estate Advisor: November
The November edition of the Real Estate advisor covers the timely topic of Selling a home during the winter holiday season, and also takes a look at the growing trend of vintage wood materials in interior design.
Seller Your Home During the Holiday Season
Winter may be the most wonderful time of the year, but the holiday months can be anything but miraculous for sellers with property on the market. Traditionally the real estate world slows down significantly from early November through the beginning of January, and often sellers are the ones left in the lurch.
Winter Sellers: Disadvantages
Bad weather: Potential homebuyers are only human, so naturally winter’s stormier conditions can convince many consumers to stay indoors.
Shorter days: Most buyers prefer to view homes in the full light of day, even when casually looking at houses and neighborhoods by car. With fewer daylight hours in the winter, homebuyers are usually limited to weekends for in-person showings.
Busy schedules: Time is at an absolute premium during a season of shopping for presents, attending holiday parties and traveling to visit relatives. Most people don’t feel they can spare time during these months to shop for homes or plan the move to a new home.
Winter Sellers: Advantages
Smaller Housing Inventory: Because the holidays are traditionally slower
selling season and sellers are just as busy as buyers at this time of year,
few homes are put on the market towards the end of the year. In addition,
many previously listed properties are taken off the market as a temporary
measure. While the number of active buyers is lower during the winter,
sellers also face less competition.
Serious Buyers: People who are willing to rearrange their holiday schedule and brave the elements to shop for a home in general tend to be motivated, serious buyers. In many cases buyers at this time of year are invigorated by the promise of impending year-end bonuses. The demands of the season in large part also eliminate false alarms casual buyers from who are “just looking”.
Tips
Target Those Rare Winter Buyers: When buyers are harder to come by, you have to work harder to attract their attention and do more to meet their needs:
- Make sure your home is well marketed on the Internet with plenty of photos and virtual tours, as buyers will spend more time browsing properties from the comfort of their own home.
- Hold open houses on weekends whenever possible. Consider an evening open house event, providing coffee and light fare to those who attend.
- Be flexible with your scheduling and requirements for showing the home to interested buyers
Improve Visibility: Make sure your home is well lit in the evenings and is not obscured by low hanging branches or foliage.
Update your Comparative Market Analysis: Even if you’ve previously obtained a market analysis, you may want updated information that factors in the seasonal slowing of real estate sales.
Presentation: Because it is holiday season, homebuyers may look at your home and try to imagine it as the setting for their own holiday celebrations. Make sure your home is warm and inviting without going overboard (no need to buy the biggest tree and the most lavish decorations available).
Lower the Price: No one wants to think that they’ve overvalued their home, but a price adjustment may be necessary if selling your home promptly is one of your goals.
What’s Old is New: Using Reclaimed Wood Inside Modern Homes
In a society fascinated with everything “retro”, homeowners have found an unlikely obsession: historic timber. In what is a growing trend, homeowners are now using vintage wood planks and beams in flooring, walls, cabinetry, shelving, support structures and interior accents.
What is “Reclaimed” Wood?
“Reclaimed” wood is a term used by architects and interior designers to describe wood that has been pulled from older buildings and re-milled for use in the interiors and exteriors of modern structures. Salvage companies search for serviceable wood planks, boards and beams from places such as old barns, turn-of-the-century factories and unused railroad trestles. Damaged and decayed wood is separated from those pieces that are suitable for reclamation.
Promising pieces must be carefully scanned for nails and spikes that need to be removed. Before being re-milled the wood is often air or kiln dried to remove moisture from within the wood. Depending on the wishes of the homeowner, the wood may be bleached or re-stained after it emerges from the mill. In some cases the wood is then distressed once again, as re-cutting the wood can sometimes leave it with a “newer” appearance.
Why Reclaimed wood?
“Character” -
For most, one the reasons reclaimed wood is appealing are the unique scars and scratches
that years of use or exposure to the elements have worn into the wood. This “distressed” look
can be applied to new wood as well (using a variety of techniques).
Authenticity –
Using antique woods can lend a sense of authenticity to an interior, particularly
when a home is designed to have a sort of “Vintage Chic” style. Vintage wood in
flooring, walls and support beams can be especially effective when remodeling or
adding on to an older home.
Wide Range of woods/styles –
Reclaimed wood can include, elm, chestnut, hemlock, walnut, hickory-pecan,
redwood, white pine, Douglas fir, and white oak. Prices vary according to the species.
Rare woods -
The wood that suppliers find in most cases was
originally milled in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the timber industry
had free range over the nation’s forests. As a result, many of the wood types
available via reclamation now grow only in protected forests and are no longer
available through new timber channels. Many of these are stunning old-growth woods
with beautiful aesthetic appeal.
Why Not?
Cost -
Style like this doesn’t come cheap. Recycled wood
flooring averages roughly $13 to $24 per square foot installed depending on
the variety of wood used. High quality new woods ring in somewhere in the $8
to $15 range. For reclaimed woods of especially unique origin, the price per
square foot can be much higher.
Durability –
Older woods typically don’t have a protective coating of polyurethane, which
can leave them susceptible to later dents or stains. In some cases, bugs
living within the wood can survive the treating and re-milling process.
The reclaimed wood industry has grown in recent years to meet increasing demand. Designers and floor specialists are now more likely than ever to offer vintage wood options for use in flooring, cabinetry and interior walls. In addition, more and more homeowners are choosing distressed new wood or faux-vintage laminates wood for the interior spaces of their homes. While not for everyone, the imperfections and quirks of distressed wood interiors can lend a sense of old warmth and comfort to your home.
