Selling your home in the summertime can be a great opportunity to attract buyers. Having your home "summer-ready" can increase the chances of it selling faster. Searching for homes often increases just as schools let out and families have some extra time to begin the hunt prior to the next school year beginning. As a seller, there are a few things you can do to create a summer-ready home that influences your buyers to step inside and stay a bit. The longer they stay when previewing your home, the greater likelihood that they're considering making an offer. Make sure your winter decorations are put away and stored. I know this sounds basic and maybe even amusing but there have been instances when lingering holiday decor still adorns some areas of the home. This may be charming to the homeowners but rest assured it's not to prospective buyers. It'll simply look like clutter. Pull the heavy-duty winter rugs up. If you have beautiful flooring like hardwood, go bare for the summer months. Revealing well-kept floors can be a big plus. Rugs that lined the floors in the winter months can be packed up when you're listing your home for sale in the summer months. Make the home look like the season and match the neighborhood. If it's bright and cheerful outside, invite that into your home by opening up the windows and letting natural light flow through. If there is one, let a cool breeze blow in or keep the air conditioner on so that it's a comfortable temperature to tour your home. Nothing is worse than entering a home to preview and finding that you can hardly stay inside because it's stuffy and blazing hot. Tidy up the backyard. Sometimes a lot of attention is given to the interior of the home and the outside area gets overlooked. Remember, in the summertime especially, homeowners will be sure to check out your yard. Make sure that it hasn't become a dumping ground or storage for all the stuff you're trying to get rid of before you move. Instead, create a pleasant vision for your prospective buyers by setting up the backyard with cute outdoor furniture. If you have gardens, make sure that you keep tending them. Don't let them get overgrown. The charm of a lovely outdoor space, large or even petite, will be appealing to most buyers, especially if they're starting with one that's already designed and maintained. Clean your fans and vents and change the heating/air conditioning filters. If you're not using or living in the home, the fans and filters can collect a lot of dust. Be sure not to overlook cleaning these things as a dirty ceiling fan can whirl off a lot of dust and debris when it's turned on. It's not a good way to start a showing by flipping a switch and having handfuls of dust flutter about the room. Cleaning and changing air conditioning filters takes only a few minutes, but the return is huge. A few simple things can help you "summer-ize" your home so that the prospective buyers can't wait to move into the home and enjoy the rest of the summer.

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