The New Year is a busy time for the property market with new listings coming up ready for selling with Spring fast approaching.

    It is important your home makes a good first impression to any potential buyer – it is a competitive marketplace and you have to make every effort to ensure  your home is welcoming and appealing in order to guarantee a good sale – here are a few tips.

     

    • Declutter

    Once you have decided you are going to sell, start  preparing your home by decluttering ready for the estate agents to take those essential photos – at this stage you have to stop thinking of it as your forever home, but rather a property you are going to sell in order to buy your next dream home.  You have to start depersonalising, too many personal effects – photos, collection of ornaments – will make the rooms look small and dark.  At the same time, you do not want your home to look like a minimalist hotel, so a few photos here and there will add a bit of warmth.

    Decide on which items you will be taking with you to your new home and which will be discarded/donated to charity/sell – rent a storage unit to keep all your unnecessary possessions until the house is sold, do not place them into the spare room or the garage – buyers need to see these spaces for the purpose they were intended for.

    declutter.jpg

    • Kerb Appeal

    Potential buyers will judge your home within minutes of arriving at the front door – make sure the exterior of the house looks good, if your front door looks tired, brighten it up with a lick of paint and pull out any weeds from the front garden, put some hanging baskets up to add some colour.

    kerb appeal.jpg

    • Light & Airy

    Once you have a potential buyer through the front door make sure the hallway is light and welcoming.   Wall mirrors make a room look much bigger and lighter, consider putting some up in smaller rooms and add some lamps to dark corners.

    Try and let in as much natural light as possible in the daytime by drawing the curtains wide open.

    Use subtle mood lighting to create the right atmosphere and make sure all light bulbs are in working order.

    • Fix & Clean

    Spring clean your home from top to bottom until it sparkles, clean windows inside and out, clean any grout on tiles.

    Fix any problems such as dripping taps, broken tiles and finish off any DIY jobs – if potential buyers see too many little jobs, they will get the impression that there is a lot of work to do to the property.  If the problem is structural such as a leaking roof, try and get it repaired if you can or it will be reflected in any potential offers.

    Tidy up the garden , clean the patio and the garden furniture and make sure the lawn is freshly cut – whilst this does not add much value to the property, it makes it more likely to sell as people can visualise themselves sitting in the garden on a sunny day.

    Last but not least – don’t panic!

    You are never going to please everyone, and you do not need to – you only need ONE buyer to make the right offer.

    sold 1.jpg