How to prepare a house for sale?

[JumpingJackSprat]

DP and I are thinking about putting our house on the market and have contacted the estate agent and he said he can come and take photos/measurements - looking at the house its a long long way from being in a position to have sale photos taken. What do you suggest doing to get it ready? What do people do with all their stuff - we don't have much storage space but we do have a lot of stuff! Not really sure what we need to consider as haven't sold before.

clean and tidy is sooooo important

be ruthless - hire a skip if you can afford it and throw stuff

also bag up for the charoty shop etc - no point moving junk from house to house

if you don't have much storage space you don't want potential buyers to pick that up

we have bought and sold 4 times in 6 years and we did the de-clutter etc and i am sure it helped

fix all the outstanding items. Tatty = neglected = hidden horrors in buyer's mind.

declutter; freecycle, ebay, charity, bin. Stop buying.
if there is stuff you really do need to keep, rent a storage unit. The cos of that will make you think what you actually need, and remember you'll need to pay to move it all.

We've just done this and I totally agree with what everyone else says. Throw/give as much stuff away as you possibly can. Fix any niggly issues. Get everything as clean as possible.

We had some very scruffy paint work and a dangerously worn stair carpet so we painted and replaced the carpet. Spent a few hundred quid, but it made a huge difference to how the house looks and allowed us to set an asking price at the ceiling for the street and still sell v quickly.

We had a clear out of things that were really old and tatty and replaced the bathroom blinds and shower curtain as they had mould spores on them.

Obviously we did make sure washing up was done, hoovering, bathroom clean and everything was in tidy piles when viewers came around, but didn't totally de-clutter like some. We asked the agents if we needed to do more and they all said no, it was clean and looked like an inviting home. One said he advised to always ensure the bathroom was clean. The photos are quite deceptive when they're taken, they made our place look more spacious and nicer than I thought. I think it's good to have the front garden looking good, so try and keep on top of weeding, cutting grass and sounds silly, but I hate to see a dirty white upvc door if you've got one.

Don't think the presentation put people off as we had 15 viewings with three offers. We had a further second viewing lined up, but felt we needed to make a decision, so cancelled that.

Good luck.

Get rid of all clutter, remove all but a very few family photos from display, if you have the time/budget for it repaint walls pale neutrals and replace tatty old carpets with cheap new ones. Deep clean entire house, descale shower screens etc, clean all windows. Replace any dark or tatty curtains with cheap pale curtains or voile panels to let maximum light in.

Oh, and tidy up the frontage so people get a good first impression.

Thanks everyone some excellent ideas. We have mostly neutral colours with some bright walls here and there the estate agents said to leave them as it well make the house more memorable. Few bits of maintenance to do so will get on those.

All the above.
If you have stuff that clutters up the home but you need to keep, stash it in the car if you have one, for the short term, or ask family/friends/neighbours to store stuff for you.

All you need to think about really is what would total strangers think of your home, no emotion, no this is how we live - think 'this is how I want^ to live' You're basically trying to persuade people that the way you live in this house is what they want too.

I always invest a few quid in some nice toiletries for the bathroom and fresh towels.
No one really wants to view your Toilet Duck (other brands are available) but some Molton Brown liquid soap and body lotion suggests a bit of luxury.
Fresh fruit in the kitchen rather than a manky bin or stale cat food. You get the idea. People want to see nice things, not the nuts and bolts of everyday life.

Most of the things that can really suggest a desirable home are either very simple, clean/tidy/fresh and well maintained, or are things that can be taken away with you, so it's not money wasted.
We sold a house once where the people wanted to buy all our furniture including bedlinen and cushions!

Yep - 'stunt towels' that match the bathroom, plus nice bed linen etc. Unless you are one of those horribly organised people who has only nice matching towels anyway.

Declutter, hide extra junk in car before viewings (and obviously move the car!)

We repainted pretty much the entire house but then we had an 18 month old who had just been through a phase of drawing on walls plus marks from getting pushchair in and out of the hall so it wasn't really avoidable.

Love "stunt towels"! I do not currently own stunt towels so that's something to consider, as is a fruit bowl. Massive decluttering and cleaning spree on the cards then. I hadn't thought about getting family to store stuff for us. Not sure why, it's a great idea.