Holiday decorations can make a home look warm, festive and inviting, but they can also make it look overcrowded, or obscure the home's greatest selling features. This poses a dilemma for listing agents who want to help their clients stage their homes the most effectively. How much is too much when it comes to holiday decorating?

The holidays can be an ideal time to market a home. Families spend more time together, making house-hunting a fun family activity. Those families which are making a move during fall and early winter tend to be highly motivated, both as sellers and as buyers. Relocation continues to play an important role in home sales as companies transfer employees according to need, not the calendar.

Especially this year, buyers want to take advantage of record low interest rates and are more likely to act quickly when they find the right home. Some markets are softening, which is encouraging sellers to take additional steps to make their homes more attractive to buyers. Buyers are more impressed with the move-in-readiness of a home than ever, and are certain to respond to a home showcased to its most welcoming best.

The key is moderation.

Agents who are working with sellers during the holidays should ask what the sellers' plans are for holiday decorating and then offer a few suggestions:

• The seller may need to realize that this season, the priority is selling the home, and less emphasis should be on decorating and shopping for the holidays. The goal is less clutter, not more.
• Would the seller consent to allowing you to help "stage" the home? You know best what buyers in your area want. In some neighborhoods, the glitzier the better. In others, a little goes a long way.
• Holiday decorations can annoy if they are put out too soon, or left out too long. Will the seller be able to commit to waiting to put the decorations up until after Thanksgiving, and to taking them down by the first weekend in January?
• What if the home sells quickly? All the decorations will have to be repacked, perhaps only days after having taken them out. The seller should think about how much work to put into decorating while other work, such as keeping the house show-ready needs to be done.
• Use holiday decorating to showcase the home's features, with items that can be thrown away. A small garland of holly can easily accent a fireplace, or a bouquet of mistletoe can bring attention to a beautiful archway. Both can be discarded instead of packed after the holidays, or on moving day.

The tree

One of the biggest joys in holiday decorating is the Christmas tree, but it can also be an elephant in the living room. Where the tree is placed and how much it crowds or enhances a space is crucial to get right.

Agents can tell sellers:

• This may not be the year to put up a big tree. Again, not only will the decorations have to be unpacked, they will have to be repacked when the holidays are over, possibly right in the middle of moving. Now is the time to be cleaning out clutter, packing nonessentials in preparation for moving, and generally working to make the home appear more spacious.
• Buyers need to be able to get around without stepping on packages or knocking ornaments about. If they are moving through the house worrying about breaking something, then they may conclude the house is too small for them.
• If the seller does want to put up a tree, suggest that some furniture may have to be moved or stored so that the space isn't cramped. Buyers are not always able to subtract furnishings and decorations when remembering room size. They can only remember that they were comfortable or uncomfortable.
• If the seller wants to use a live tree, keep the tree watered so that the branches don't lose needles. The tree will look more "live."
• Think twice before putting the tree in the window. Buyers may be charmed from the curb, but they will want to know what the views are like, and a tree in the window won't allow them to find out.

Advise your sellers to have fun with the holidays, but remind them that less is more, and that when their home sells, they will be glad that you saved them so much work.