Three tips for showing your home in the fall
Joe Allocco's Franklin Square Horror is a haunted house in Franklin Square that is open to the public only one night of the year, Halloween. (October 20, 2009) Credit: Photo by Charles Eckert
Long Island has a beautiful fall, but with that beauty comes some pesky issues when it comes to showing properties. Local real estate agents offer the following tips for presenting homes this time of the year:
1. Have a gardener “put gardens to bed” for the season, suggests Barbara Bornstein of Sotheby’s International Realty. Clear leaves from the lawns, decks and walkways. Don't use too many pumpkins, and forget about decorations. Display photos taken in the spring and summer of the pool and garden areas. If the house is vacant, leave the shades up.
2. Burn a small pumpkin spice candle, says Tom McGiveron of Coldwell Banker Matherson. The yard should be manicured, trees pruned and leaves raked. Pruning tress will decrease the amount of falling leaves. Continuous yard maintenance is key. People don't want to see what they have to do with a home. You want buyers to see the home when everything is already done.
3. If the home is located in a development, clear up the leaves, says Dolores Peterson of Town & Country Real Estate. But if the home is located in a farm or if it is a quaint, old-fashioned neighborhood, then leave the leaves alone. They add character and color. As for decorations, stick to the colored leaves, pumpkins and corn stalks. Spiders and witches do their job and scare people away.
