If you have put a lot of time and effort into your home, it can be a tough decision to sell up and move on, but it is something every one of us has to do from time to time, for a whole variety of reasons. Selling a house can be stressful and time-consuming, but with current demand outstripping supply in most parts of the country, if you are going to do it, there has never been a better time.
You will need to select the right estate agent, and there are plenty to choose from. Take a good look at the different options, and read as much as you can in terms of customer feedback. These Fox and Sons reviews are a prime example, and give some real world information that you will not see by simply scanning the agent websites.
However, whichever agent you use, and however good they are, they can only do so much, and it is down to you to make your property as saleable as possible. Americans call it “staging the house“, which is a perfect description, as you are looking to set a scene of future domestic bliss for those who come to view.
Depersonalise and declutter
You need viewers to see potential, and if every room is full of family photos and your personal bits and pieces, they will be seeing it as your home rather than their future home. It is not always easy when you’ve spent so long doing the opposite, but you want the place to look less like yours and more like a blank canvas, so go minimalistic by clearing and boxing up anything and everything you don’t absolutely need.
Kerb appeal
How long do you think it takes viewers to form an opinion on whether they like your house? According to researchers, it is less than eight seconds. Sure, they might change their minds on closer examination, but if the first impression is not a good one, you are fighting a losing battle.
Walk up the road, turn around, walk back and take a long, hard look at your home from the perspective of the buyer, as if you’d never seen it before. Compare it to the neighbouring homes. What works, and what lets it down? Just cleaning the windows, trimming the front hedge and oiling that sticky catch on the gate could make all the difference.
Clean
Of course, you will clean the kitchen and bathroom and have a run round the house with the hoover before a viewer turns up to look round, but maybe you could do a little more and make a big difference.
Rightmove conducted some interesting research, which showed that the biggest turn off for potential buyers wasn’t the modernity of the kitchen or the amount of sunlight, it was seeing a dirty bathroom. A couple of hours elbow grease making the tiles sparkle and perhaps replacing the grout and caulking could just swing the sale in your favour.
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