Can you help me sell my house?

[1stTimeMama]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but here seems like a good spot. We would like to move, and are currently having work done on the house.

So what, in your opinion, are the top things you look for when buying a house? What can I do to really entice people in? I'll give a brief description and if you could let me know how I can make the best of the house, I'd really appreciate it.

5 double bedrooms
Open plan living/kitchen/dining area
Garden room
Utility room
1/2 loft conversion currently used as a playroom.
0.25 acre plot.
2 bathrooms
Kitchen, both bathrooms and utility all installed in the past year.

Decent, uncluttered photos on the listing.
Reasonable price.

Bright, clean, and clutter free. Fresh smelling but not smelling like horrible air fresheners, because that makes me think you have something to hide. Any gaudy paint colours or feature walls, get rid of them.

The rule of thumb is invest in anything that is cosmetic and relatively easy - lick of paint, garden, new carpets at push… no building work.

declutter massively perhaps even put stuff in storage

sometimes toy need to invest to sell

a lot of buyers go off but and superficial nicety

We sold during 2020 and we decluttered massively in order to make it look super clean and tidy.

I hired a storage unit and packed a large number of boxes up - admin things, kitchen equipment, kids toys, out of season clothes.

Fresh flowers on the kitchen table/counter.

Garden tidied up.

Windows /windowsills cleaned and the outside walls /path/ gate / patio cleaned so it looked good - we went on the market in January so it was all a bit gloomy at the time.

We had 14 viewings before our house went live on rightmove and had 3 offers by the Monday morning. Our estate agents were pretty good to be fair and we paid (through the EA) to have a professional photographer take the photos.

Good luck - it's often a stress experience; hopefully it will be as pain free for you as possible.

All ongoing work/repairs need to be finished.

Ensure you declutter

get really good photos taken

post a link on MN and get really detailed advice

Bright, clean, neutral. We spent the weekend before viewings decluttering, scrubbing every inch and touching up paint. It had to look spotless. It went on the market Friday at 5pm and sold after viewings on the Tuesday afterwards.

Remember a lot of people have no vision and will not be able to see past anything that sticks out for whatever reason in the photos, etc. Depersonalise, but don't make it soulless. With you having had such a lot done in the last year I'd be wondering why you were moving? Is it a money pit, for example, with a lot more still to do?

Priced sensibly
Clutter free
No major repair works
Good location (though likely wouldn't show on my rightmove search or view it if it wasnt)
Adequate living space to bedroom/bathroom ratio - eg I hate those houses where the main living space is just one big room but then there's 4 loos. Again tho, I wouldn't even view in that case.
Not opposite/adjacent to anything like a factory/empty abandoned buildings etc.

Make sure the open plan living space is uncluttered and well designated into its different “zones” so that people can see how it works to live in, even if that means moving furniture around from how you currently have it. A totally open plan kitchen dining living space can be a tricky sell in a large family home and will put many people off if they can’t see its functionality.

Age?
Garage?
Open plan means high bills? How open plan- a separate kitchen at least?
Garden room means what?
How many bathrooms? you say 2 but with 5 bed s how many loos?

2 or 3 storey?
Detached ?

1970's detached, no garage but driveway and onroad parking. Part of the back garden can also be used for parking if required.
Bills wise I don't think we pay over the odds, £199 for gas and electric together each month.
The kitchen is part of the open plan living/dining/kitchen area.
The garden room is a multi use room, could be another living space, playroom, office etc. which opens up on to the garden.
It's 3 storeys if you include the loft room. Full bathroom on ground floor, full shower room on first floor. No ensuites.

Decluttering is a must, there's a lot of children here and so 'stuff' is in abundance!

It's all being painted white, so it'll be fresh and airy and ready for whatever someone wants to do with it.

@WeAreTheHeroes we've been here 3 years, and have done a lot to it, and fixed everything that needed doing. It's just not big enough for us now, and we are looking for a location that suits us better. So, not moving for any sinister reasons.

@ComtesseDeSpair could you elaborate on the zoning of the open plan area?

It's encouraging how a few of you have had your houses snapped up, though I'm not expecting it to be plain sailing in the current market.

It's all being painted white, so it'll be fresh and airy and ready for whatever someone wants to do with it.

Make sure it's a warm, cozy white, not a cold stark one. It makes a massive difference in the feel of the home.

As per others declutter and touch up paintwork, but also make sure the house is a comfortable temperature for viewings and have the carpets cleaned! And keep the garden tidy and uncluttered too. It might be worth getting a few cheap plants to brighten it up if it is a bit sparse or may be putting some plants in pots. Primroses are cheap and cheerful at the moment. When we sold my mum's house the front door area looked a bit bleak so we put an attractive pot of flowers by the front steps. And make sure everything looks clean!

You can zone areas by the careful placement of furniture, lighting and flooring. For the purpose of selling your house that might mean moving your furniture round a bit, using some table or floor lamps and putting down a rug or two - if you haven't already done those things. And important to ensure that buyers see the potential of what your rooms can be used for. My mum had made her fourth bedroom into a sort of storage/dressing room by putting built in cupboards all down one wall and it had a load of miscellaneous furniture in there. She had also never bothered to put up curtains in there. We took out all the odd bits of furniture and put in a single bed and a small chest with a reading lamp and found some nursery curtains in a charity shop and put them up, together with some little animal pictures on the walls with command strips, to show that the room was big enough to make a pleasant child's room. I even put a teddy on the bed and a fluffy rug next to it. If you have a space with an undefined use, why not set it up as a home office? You probably already have some furniture that can be used to make it look like that. I just put a spare monitor on the desk in my mum's study and rearranged it a bit.
And in an open plan house, probably best not to have any kitchen smells, so no curry the night before viewings!