Styling house to sell - ideas

[MachineBee]

I’m about to put my house on the market and want some MN wisdom re styling it for the sales particulars and viewings.

It’s recently been refurbished with all white walls, ceilings and woodwork, natural oak doors and flooring at ground level, natural wool carpets upstairs and sitting room. It’s a period property with retained period features but modern family kitchen/diner and bathrooms.

I’ll obviously ensure the house is clutter-free but my DD has said I need to style it so it has ‘aspirational appeal’ and she gave examples of putting out only white towels on show, ‘naice’ bathroom products (no Sanex or Tresemme), plain white or very tiny ditsy patterned bed linen. I prefer to add some colour with textiles (towels, bedding, cushions etc) so the house is more homely. Is she right and does the MN collective have any other pointers to suggest?

Your DD has been watching too many property shows from 10 years ago

very very very clean

and utterly uncluttered

and that’s it

How old is your daughter?

what kind of a property is it? And what will the asking price be?

I think things like flowers, nice room spray, if you have a fire and it’s cold have it on… things like this make me fall in love with houses. Also my mum swears by having the radio in the kitchen on low so the house isn’t deadly silent.

DD is late-30s - she’s London based. I live in Sussex.

Edwardian semi, 5 bedrooms, converted loft, expecting to sell around £875,000.

Your buyer won’t be FTB

they won’t need white towels and fancy products to know whether they want it or not and what they’re prepared to pay for it

I was planning on doing the death-clear to end all death clear! 😂

The very very very clean is a given. Im banning all guests for the month before we go on market to clean the property to within an inch of its life!

Your market won’t be sucked in to “aspirational pull” for goodness sakes! 😂

know your market

Have to hand information re schools and catchment areas

Smelling nice, but natural smells like flowers, nothing chemically or plug in.

It’s getting cold now, so make sure it feels warm inside.

First seconds count so look at the outside critically, tidy, well swept, pots with healthy plants if you can but if not make sure there aren’t any empty pots, or pots with dead plants.

Good point. The properties I’m looking at - all I’m after is whether it’s well maintained and looked after, the layout, size, location and price.

Your DD is right. Clear away clutter, have a few photos out so it looks like a family home; have nice hand wash and towels; have flowers on the hall table if you have a hall table or the kitchen table if not; white bed linen; all bedrooms with beds in them and made up: tidy garden:

you are clearly in the aspirational end of house buying so style accordingly. Good luck - your home sounds fab.

And clear house number/name!

Also have a fire or have the house nice and warm and cosy - that really made an impact on me when buying in Autumn.

I'd have to say aspirational isn't going to make a difference to someone buying an 875k house in Sussex. They're likely to be an experienced home buyer and seller and will want clear concise information and lots of info on dates. Absolute transparency and a clean uncluttered home is all I'd be looking for.

I’ve got gardeners in making the garden (front and back) look tidy plus easy, welcoming and relaxing.

We’re aiming for early spring market but good point about it feeling warm. We do have a log burner so will make sure that’s going.

That’s helpful - I wasn’t sure about putting up family pics.

We sold a similar house a few years ago.

It had been renovated etc and was clean and neat and tidy. I did buy new towels that were for viewings only. And nice hand wash etc.

Also made sure all the beds were really tidy and crease free rather than hurriedly made.

I figured people buying at that end of the market are less likely to be swayed by designer toiletries but would want to know house was clean and well maintained.

I don’t think it does any harm to style your home/a house when selling. A good property well priced and in a desirable location will always sell no matter what but in my experience, styling always helps achieve the best price more quickly.
Attention to lighting is always a good idea (mood lighting on, ensuring that the house isn’t dark this time of year for example and lighting some tea lights for ambience).
Decluttered but not too much so that it looks stark and lifeless.
Fresh flowers too. (keep them simple).
I’m pretty sure you’ll know that the house needs to be sparkling clean for viewings, with beds made and no dishes in the sink (I was amazed how many people didn’t do this when we were viewing!)
Some people have vision and can see how they’d live in a house regardless but a lot of people don’t have any vision. You just don’t know when you have strangers viewing your property so it’s a good idea to sell aspirations and how people can live in your home to everyone that views. Those that have vision will appreciate it.
Good luck!

Best tip we got was to completely clear all the windowsills of stuff. Maximises the views and helps with the uncluttered look.

This ^

We've previously sold five houses that you'd call 'aspirational' (characterful/unique etc) and imho making an effort to style/dress them accordingly definitely pays off from a sales perspective. You want your house to stand out in a sea of bland - for the right reasons, obviously!

We're about to sell (but this time a smaller, detached cottage-type property in a scenic rural location) and have again done this...although tbh we've not really done anything differently from how we normally live - with the exception of bringing out the Liberty towels, putting the bed throw on that DDog isn't allowed on and hanging the 'stunt oven glove' (everyday one is a bit burnt!) on the oven door.

We're soft marketing in the first instance so will be interesting to see how it goes as we've not done that before...nor sold in this part of the UK.

Our house is very maximalist and whilst it's probably way too much stuff for many people, it's carefully curated and doesn't look like a pile of tat (imho, anyway!) There's no way we'd declutter to the point of starkness as it wouldn't suit the style of house/way it's furnished. So, I think yes, style it - but maybe your house is already full of lovely, aspirational things! Often these just need thinning out a little.

Good luck with your sale @MachineBee!

Thank you to everyone and for all the good luck messages. My DD will be pleased to hear that her approach is considered the way to go.

Love the idea of a ‘stunt oven glove’ - I was just going to hide mine. I will hunt out some deals on white bedding and towels.

And good point about clearing the window sills. DH’s carnivorous plants will be relocating to the greenhouse.

Past property sales I’ve always driven the family mad with keeping it clean and tidy ready for viewings (and yes no dishes in the sink or towels on the floor- despite the protestations of DCs). This time it’s just me and DH so in theory it should be a little easier, but I’m aware this property is in a different league to past houses and may have to attract a different type of buyer to what I’ve been used to.

Ironically, one previous house sale happened when our eventual buyers needed an immediate and urgent viewing one Saturday morning and my house was not at all in ‘viewing order’. They were lovely buyers, had a purchase fall through and needed a new purchase to avoid their chain falling apart.

I’ll be aiming for our home to look and feel homely, stylish and to not have any issues that could put off potential buyers.

I think it helps if it photographs well and for me it is bedrooms where that often does not go as well as it could, with a very plain bed with nothing above it.

A period property that did photograph well near me had white walls, good natural flooring but they had a coloured bedspread on every bed and something on every wall above it which worked really cohesively, with very little else in the bedrooms.

Agree!!