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If you’re looking to list your home during the holiday season, you might want to hold off on decking the halls with boughs of holly, at least until you can get some decoration-free photos of your property.
Be it a 10-foot-tall Christmas tree, a yard full of blow-up Santa Clauses or a roof covered in lights, Christmas decorations might interfere with selling a home, according to professional home stagers. Instead, they suggest home sellers opt for simple decorations, if any at all.
“It might be a good idea just to forego decorating in like, a major way that year,” said Michael Fowler, owner of interior design firm Michael Fowler Creative. “You never want somebody to be like, 'What the heck is this?' So, I would say if you're going to put up a tree while you're listing your home, do it in a way that's a little bit more pared back.”
Fowler said there are other ways to incorporate seasonal flair in listing photos. For example, sellers can add red leaves or a pine wreath to a property in the fall and winter. In the spring, he’d recommend fresh flowers or give a nod to D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms.
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That approach also makes it easier if a property takes some time to sell. If a listing goes up with photos that include decorations from a specific holiday, it could turn off buyers who think it’s been listed for too long.
"It's more of the season of the year, less so the holiday season. Because the other thing is, God forbid, you know, if it takes longer than a month to sell," Fowler said. "You want something to have staying power, and isn't going to tell you like, oh this was staged in December because there's Christmas decorations."
Aesthetic decorating
Sometimes, however, staging a home with specific holiday décor can be beneficial, especially when the sellers are still living there, according to stager Caitlyn Brick who owns Triple Crown Designs.
For example, Brick said her team recently staged an occupied home in Ellicott City, Maryland, where the owner had already put up some Christmas decorations. Given the color scheme of the house – red kitchen cabinets – Brick said she leaned into the holiday theme.
“We kind of played into her more neutral stuff,” she said in an interview. “Stuff that was still aesthetically pleasing but still had that Christmas vibe too. I felt like when you walked into the house you just felt this like warm, welcome Christmas spirit.”
The sale status of the property was listed on Homes.com as pending three days after it was listed.
But like Fowler, Brick said she suggests seasonal touches rather than all-out holiday décor. One way to do that is by focusing on color schemes and finding subtle ways to incorporate reds, greens and blues into a home.
“We tend to not buy anything super specific because sometimes we can’t reuse those pieces,” she said. “Naturally I kind of incorporate the holiday season. Like, we got a few rugs that have these really pretty deep red and green tones.”
Ultimately, the most important goal when staging a home for sale is giving buyers something to aspire to regardless of the season, Fowler said.
“Somebody could say, 'If I lived here, it would look like this all the time…And if I moved here, I could live like this,’” he said.