Thinking about selling your home? Presentation matters. Take a good look at your house – if you were coming to view it would you put in an offer? What would sell it to you? If you wouldn’t make an offer on your house then neither will anyone else. You need to pull out all the stops to impress and show your home off at its best. Make sure you play to your home’s strengths.
1. Make a Good First Impression
The old saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” goes out the window when selling houses – first impressions really do count. It’s the first thing potential buyers will see before entering your home – and many people will make a drive-by visit to your home before deciding if they want to book a viewing – so it’s extra important to make an effort with the front of your house. It should be tidy and clean. Give walls, fences and doors a fresh lick of paint and make sure the grass is cut. Tidy up any flower beds and trim the hedges and polish up the door furniture. Don’t leave bins or kids toys in the front yard. Sweep the path. Keep it clean and simple. Make people want to come in.
And when they do come in, make sure they aren’t greeted with a rack stuffed full of coats and a heap of shoes. Keep the hallway clear. Light a fresh scented candle. Candles create a welcoming, cozy, homely ambience, but don’t overdo it, and remember to blow them out after the viewing! You don’t want to burn the house down! If you really don’t like candles, spray a fresh scented room spray around the house or keep scent sachets on radiators.
2. Scrub & Declutter
Your house should be super clean – we’re talking show home clean here. Every nook and cranny should be free from dust-bunnies and pet hair. Surfaces should be cleaned and hard floors should be sparkling. It’s worth getting your carpets professionally cleaned before you put your house on the market and keep plastic sheets down on it between viewings to avoid accidental stains. Clean your oven, microwave, fridge and freezer – this is especially important for integrated appliances that are included in the sale. Yes, it’s an absolute pain in the arse to keep your home sparkling every day, but it’s worth it to get the sale.
Declutter EVERY room. Are you planning on taking all the kids toys with you when you move? If not, then take what you don’t want to a charity shop. Do you have a lot of clothes? Get them into storage boxes and into a storage unit or a friends garage. Only keep the essentials out and make sure they can be neatly stored. Do you really need several bottles of half used shampoo bottles in your bathroom? If your house looks cluttered and too small for you, it will look the same to any potential buyer. The same is true of a larger house too – if it looks like too much work to keep clean and running, buyers will be put off.
3. Repair & Repaint
Is a kitchen cabinet missing a door handle, or are your white skirting boards and doors scuffed? Fix it. Take an hour and go from room to room and make a snag list. These things may escape your notice on a day-to-day basis, but they won’t escape the notice of potential buyers. With every minor thing like this they notice, they are knocking money off their offer – after all if it’s going to cost them £500 having a decorator come in and paint skirting boards and doors then that’s £500 they will deduct from their offer – or it may put off buyers altogether. But it’s something you could easily tackle yourself – a tin of paint and a brush and you could have the problem sorted in a weekend.
Bring your house back to a neutral canvas. You may love that neon green wall and that pink floral wallpaper, but it’s not to everyone’s taste. Paint all the walls white. I know the norm is to go for magnolia to keep the place looking ‘warm’, but really white is best. It’s truly a blank canvas then, and its much easier for potential buyers to picture living there themselves when they don’t have to try and see past your personal style.
4. Show-off the Space
Most people move because they have outgrown their home. They maybe bought it when there was only two of them, but five years down the line there’s three kids, two dogs, a cat, four guinea pigs and a goldfish all squeezed into a two up two down. But you don’t want potential buyers to know that. It has to look like it’s still got plenty of space.
Open curtains and blinds to let plenty of natural daylight in. Potential buyers will want to see every room – so don’t try and hide your clutter in one room, or in a garage. If you have a friend or family member with space in their garage, ask them if you could use it/rent it from them. Is your furniture taking up too much space in your house? Store it. Squeezed a six-seater dining table into a small kitchen? Store it and get a cheap smaller one from Gumtree/Ikea that’s better suited to the space. No matter how small a room is it should look spacious. Put any kids toys neatly in a toy basket in their room and if there’s any that don’t fit, put them in storage. Don’t keep kids toys in any other room of the house, including the bathroom or living room.
5. Bathrooms & Kitchens Sell Houses
You’ve probably heard this before, but never a truer thing has been said. Bathrooms and kitchens are expensive to replace so any potential buyer is looking for something clean, tidy and spacious that they can live with for at least five years if not more. Something as easy as replacing a formica worktop with a wooden one and updating cupboard handles can really add value to a kitchen. You can buy a length of wooden worktop from Ikea for £100. A fresh, white, clutter-free bathroom is always a winner. You may like the soft feel of a mat under your tootsies when you’re having a wee but to others it may look like a germ sponge. Store products neatly in a vanity unit or on a shelf and make sure towels are folded neatly and are clean.
6. Pets
Do you keep the dog/cat bed and food bowls in kitchen? Does your kitty have a litter tray? Take these away before viewings. You can put them into a box in the shed or in the boot of your car, it really doesn’t matter as long as they aren’t there when you are having a viewing. Also it’s a good idea to ask a friend or family member to look after your pets for half an hour while potential buyers are viewing your house. You love your pets, but potential buyers may not and you don’t want to distract them from the house.
It’s also a good idea to open a window in each room every day to let fresh air circulate whether you have pets or not.
7. Glorious Gardens
Garden’s typically look their best in summer, but houses sell all year round. Tidy away any rubbish, cut the grass and trim hedges. Neaten up fences and sheds either by giving them a good scrub or a lick of paint. A few potted plants on patio areas will brighten up grey spaces. If there’s an outdoor light make sure the bulb works. A clean and tidy outside table and chair set can also set off decked/patio areas. Tidy away any kids or pets toys, and if you keep your bins at the back of the house, invest/build a wheelie bin tidy (no one thinks bins are pretty) and keep them as far away from the back door as possible to minimise any smells. You can get a wheelie bin tidy for about £60 on Amazon.