Preparation for house valuation - advice???

[Hulababy]

I have spent the morning cleaning and tidying to make my apartment look good:

Here; password is hulababy

But other than cleaning and tidying, what else can I do to ensure I get a good, fair price and to make people want to buy?

Hi Hula, we part-exed our last house and the main things I remember from the valuation were that we cleaned for England and then de-cluttered and de-personalised everything. The other thing I remember was that the estate agent/developer asked a lot of questions about the house when it was sold to us (it was new then) like price in relation to others in the same block, and what we got for our money, what had been added since. We got offered the exact price we were looking for in the end so it was worthwhile, but a bit different to you as we were selling and valuing all in one go. Good luck!

Thanks!

We have no more storage so can't declutter any more - I know DD's bedroom could be less busy but nothing more I can do in that sense.

Valuer is coming at 3pm today.

Last house we slold, sold at just above asking price before it went on the market properly!

Hula,

It looks fine to me. We did same as Bagpuss when we sold ours, but we weren't living in it at the time, so it just had furniture and minimal clutter.

I like the views from yours!

It looks neat and tidy. I know you say you have no more storage, but if your storage cupboards are looking jam packed, it might be worth looking in to hiring a self-storage unit (they're not expensive) and decanting some stuff to that.

It'll not make much difference to your valuation today - but it may do later when prospective buyers come round. They WILL open your cupboards - and if they look neat and tidy and not too full, they will think that there is plenty of storage. If they see it is cramed full of stuff, they will worry.

If you can take some of the stuff off dd's wall just for a short time, that might help make the room less personal to her - and therefore more attractive to buyers.

Good idea about DD's room. I will take down 2 or 3 of her posters. Forgotton there were so many. I am loathe to completely declutter it though as I don't want my little one completely messed up by it all.

Storage cupboard isn't too bad. It is tidy, but full now. No room at all for more cupboards or anything though.

Another question - has anyone used the agents to do the viewings? We are off on holiday next Wednesday so will have to leave the viewings to either the agents or to PILs. Great timing, eh?!

Personally I would get PILs to be there but get the agent to do all the work IYSWIM. I would never give an agent a key of their own for security reasons, but I do think that they are sometimes better at showing people around than I would be for instance. Our last house was small with little storage and anything that we couldn't get in the loft, we put in my PIL's garage until we moved. Agree about children's rooms though, not much you can do and I think people will expect it, as long as toys are all put away you should be fine.

Hulababy - I didn't mean buying in more storage to put in to the flat - I meant hiring some space at one of the specialist places likes this which lets your rent space form 15sq.ft upwards. It might cost you £30/month or so - but if it helps you get a couple of hunderd extra quid !!!

Cheers. Not too bothered about leaving key as Dh does know a few of the agents - he has had lots of dealings with them through work and has played golf/cricket with them. But, I think where possible I will get PIls to be there.

I will see what the reaction is from first viewings and see if we really need to go to the hassle of storage. Didn't seem to be an issue selling old place - had a room full of baby stuff as I was 8 months og. Nobody seemed bothered. But agree in an apartment it may be different.

... didn't think about seeing if you could put stuff at your PILs.

In my case we were storing the contents of my house in Bolton until we got a bigger place, so when we came to put our flat on the market, the one storage unit was already choc-a-block and we had to hire yet another (small)one. And neither sets of aprents had much space for us to make use of (my parents were already storing stuff for my brother).

I can just remember the estate agent making a big thing of ensuring that our storage was as "empty" as possible, to give the illusion of loads of space available - especially important in a flat where storage IS such an issue.

Hulababy, I'd really recommend letting the agents do the viewings and not the PILs. With an agent, the viewers will be much more relaxed and able to look at your house better. Also, agents have experience of the best way to 'show' a house to bring out its best.
And they have a vested interest in making the viewers like it after all.

I will have a chat to the valuer about the way they like to do the viewings. I have to admit I am a little wary of PILs doing them - well, as much as I love them, you never know what they might say when answering questions do you? At least we can brief the agents fully.

Hula, have a look at the photos of the rooms in the house that you liked. They were very clean and tidy, and there were touches like flowers and plants.
If there are viewings when you are on hols get PIL to flick a duster round the surfaces/ broom round the floors and open the windows to air the apartment, maybe put some fresh flowers around the place. Make sure the windows are clean.

Since you will be away, maybe it wouldn't upset Mollie too much to store all her stuff at your PIL's?

Flowers and fruit bowls will be full!!! And PIls have already agreed to come and air. they come over whilst were are away anyway - use the place like a holiday pad and use the restaurants. LOL!!!

I will see about maybe taking some stuff out of DD's room but TBH PILs don't have any storage left really as they still have so much of BIL from his year or so in Oz. And my parents certainly don't as my sister's stuff is allt here.

Oh , I would offer to take Mollies things here, but Katie would never let her have them back LOL!!!

Don't worry too much, I am sure one child's room full of toys won't put people off.

Well, having been to see a couple of other apartments on viewings recently I would hope not. Their second rooms were such messes. Supposedly study but jumk room really. Washing all over, boxes on floor, things just obviously dumped. Both apartments sold within about 2 weeks though so...

Grrr!!! Valuer just phoned and is running later "Can we reschedule?" So he is now ocming at 1pm tomorrow. Dh will have to come home from work - I ave an interview at a supply agency at 2pm. We laso have the second valuer coming tomorrow at 10am.