Proper lighting can make the sale

It's always a challenge to succeed in selling a home in the middle of winter, but if you find yourself in this situation, light can be your best friend.

The first priority, whenever you want to sell a home, is to price it properly so that it will attract interest and showings, explains Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

"Once you have the right price, your next priority should be the appearance of the home, and in winter, light can have huge impact on how a home looks to prospective buyers," Merrion said. "The relative lack of light is one of two major differences between the selling environment for a home in winter and during the rest of the year. Daylight hours are fewer in winter, and even when the sun is up, it is lower in the sky and there is less natural light to brighten both the exterior and interior of a home.

"The other major difference in the Chicago area is that the landscape goes from green to brown at that time of year," he noted. "However, once a buyer steps into the house, landscape is less noticeable. Lack of light, on the other hand, can negatively impact both the exterior curb appeal of a property and how it looks on the inside."

"The first advice I give to clients who are listing their home in winter is to do everything they can to let natural light in," says Jim Nealis of RE/MAX TEAM 2000 in Palos Heights. "That means fully open window treatments, wash the windows, cut back shrubs if they block the view and take down or pull back any awnings."

Nealis also suggests illuminating the corners of rooms, which will help make the interior look both welcoming and as large as possible.

Juliana Montebello of RE/MAX Signature North in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood says she makes an extra effort to make each property she is showing look warm and welcoming when potential buyers arrive.

"You don't want buyers walking into a dark house, especially in winter, so I attend all showings and make sure the lights are on in advance," Montebello says. "Showing a home is really not that different from selling any other expensive merchandise, such as an automobile. In an auto show room, the display areas are clean and bright so the cars sparkle, and buyers can see all the details. A home for sale should be presented the same way -- bright and clean."

To that end, Montebello often urges clients to either add brighter bulbs or new brighter fixtures when they put their house on the market. Recently, for example, she convinced some sellers to replace 20-year-old track lights with new halogen fixtures and to take down room-darkening vertical blinds and hang sheer curtains instead. The townhouse went on the market in September and was under contract 24 days later.

"I think the sellers' willingness to brighten up and properly stage the house really paid off," she said. Montebello also urges those selling a condominium not to ignore the common areas.

"You want them to look bright and well maintained, too," she advises.

For any type of home, getting adequate light on the exterior entry area is an important consideration in winter, according to Patricia Kappeler of RE/MAX Premier Realty in Lake Villa.

"Keep the front light on at all times, and make the entry bright and welcoming," advises Kappeler. "You don't want a potential buyer stumbling around in the dark on an icy sidewalk.

You might want to paint the door a bright color, add a wreath or holiday decorations and keep the walk clear."

She notes that in the last few years, homeowners have been putting "decorator colors" on their walls, and some of those colors are very dark.

"In winter, there is not a lot of natural light, so if you have painted with those deep hues, you might need to add light fixtures to a room. In some cases, such as some of the burgundy paints, you should probably repaint using lighter colors," says Kappeler. "Paints with a yellow tinge -- butter cookie colors -- are very "in" right now. White and off-white paints are really out."

The same goes for carpeting if it is stained or worn and should be replaced. Select a cheery color, especially in winter.

"Sellers need to keep in mind that how a home looks when you are trying to sell it is quite different from how a home will look and function when you are living in it," explains Jim Merrion.

"You may not want to live in a house where the shades are always open and light bulbs have been stepped up from 60 watts to 75 watts, and you certainly wouldn't want to leave the lights on in all the closets. However, when your home is on the market, those things can make sense because they help show your home to its best advantage," he says. "In fact, it can be a good marketing technique to keep the home brightly lighted at all times because that makes it more noticeable and could help catch the eye of a potential buyer who is passing by. In today's very competitive marketplace, the home that gets the most attention and shows the best is most often the one that sells first."