Fall Checklist and Tips for Listing Your Central Oregon Home in the Fall and Winter

House Talk - Bend, Oregon Real Estate with Karen Malanga

KAREN: Hi, I’m Karen Malanga, Principal Broker with Re/MAX Key Properties and Nest Bend. I’m here with my daughter and co-broker, Kristin Marshall.

What we wanted to chat about today just briefly, because winter is coming, is our fall checklist. We think this is a real important time when it comes to your home maintenance, especially if you’re thinking about listing your home over winter – which, by the way, is a great time to list.

Kristin, do you want to go over the fall checklist that we’ve created for our clients?

KRISTIN: Absolutely. Right now it’s a great time to check the weather stripping and caulking around your doors and windows. Possibly looking at the roof and making sure that everything is good there from last winter. Taking a look at any damaged sidewalks, driveways, steps – that’s important because that’s how people get into your home when they’re viewing it.

KAREN: Yes.

KRISTIN: And of course, always checking your smoke alarms and CO detectors.

KAREN: And then there’s other things we have to do because central Oregon and our inclement weather – we don’t know what this winter is going to bring. My stomach’s telling me it’s going to be a lot of snow, but I’ve been wrong before. Covering up your hose bibs with the – for lack of a better word, they’re just those funky Styrofoam things you get at Ace Hardware, or the foundation covers.

The other thing that we really appreciate when someone is choosing to list their home over the winter is that you let us know ahead of time, and we’ll get some great photos done before the snow does hit.

Then if your home does appear to need some maintenance, it might be a good idea to have a home inspection prior to getting the home on the market so that buyers can rest assured – and also, if we do get a heavy snowfall and the home inspection process is minimized because of that, we can say, “Wait a minute, these great sellers had a home inspection done in the fall.” That will give some buyers this huge vote of confidence. Don’t you agree, Kristin?

KRISTIN: Absolutely. It’s also good, if you are blowing out your sprinklers this fall, to keep that receipt, because a lot of buyers in the winter will want to see that, just to ensure that everything was taken care of prior.

KAREN: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Hang on to all those receipts. Get the furnace serviced. The other thing is if you’re looking to do some improvements before you list, we also have a great program with Pinecone Lending and Listing Solutions. You can contact us about that as well. But right now you can find us at NestBend.com, right, Kristin?

KRISTIN: Yes, absolutely.

KAREN: And if you’re looking to list in the fall, we would love to help. Thanks.

KRISTIN: Thank you.

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