Preparing your home for sale is more than just boxing your belongings. Making your home attractive to buyers is crucial in delivering you the top price for your home. You want the buyer to be able to envision their own items in your home and imagine living there themselves. Removing small distractions like clutter or unclean areas can greatly help with this.
Here a few tips on how to get your property ready for sale:
DE-CLUTTER
- Removing clutter will make your home look larger and more appealing.
- Remember to declutter cupboards too – buyers will check storage during open homes. Tidy, clean cupboards imply that the rest of the house is well looked after as well.
- Consider moving surplus furniture and other items to a friend’s place or storage unit or store small items in cartons neatly in the garage.
- Use decluttering as an opportunity to sell or throw out items you don’t want to move to your next home.
- Remove or replace chattels that you don’t want to sell before the first open home, for example, a favourite lightshade.
CLEAN
- When your home is free of clutter and surplus furniture, it’s a good time for a deep clean.
- Think about hiring a professional cleaning team to do this for you if you’re short of time.
- Get the carpets professionally cleaned – this can make a big difference.
- Get the windows clean and sparkling, this helps the natural light flow in. As well as maximising the view or outlook.
- Cleaning down the front doorstep, cladding and spouting.
- Consider water blasting after winter too.
- Once the deep clean has been done, it will be easier to clean before each open home or viewing.
TOUCH UP’S & REPAIRS
- Fix any issues like leaks, damaged areas and broken drains.
- Attend to things like dripping taps, cracked windows, holes in walls, tired paint, sticking doors and lightbulbs that need replacing.
- Re staining or painting cladding.
- A new toilet seat can be easy to install and freshen up this less desirable area.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A good first impression can work wonders. We suggest walking out to the street and viewing your property in the eyes of a potential purchaser viewing it for the first time. Things you might consider doing are:
- Gardens weed free and tidy.
- Putting a fresh layer of soil or bark or planting some currently flowering plants. Most nurseries have potted colour you can pick up for not too much.
- Touching up fence paint and letter box paint
- Touching up paint around the front entrance – i.e. your doorstep
See our blog on preparing for Open Homes and Viewings here