Tips for getting house ready for sale

[preggersbycheggers]

This is the first time we have sold a house and it is likely we will be moving to a new build.

We live in a fairly confidant market with regard to the housing market but is there anything I should be doing now to get our house ready to go on the market?

Many thanks for any advice.

De-clutter
Clean
Tidy
Do all the odd jobs
Create a good first impression- kerb appeal
Think about any negatives and how you can answer those awkward questions .

We got a handyman in for £120 for a day. He painted an external door, redid the glossing and ceiling in the bathroom, pressure washed the patio and a few other minor bits and bobs. I feel it made the house more sellable as it looked truly ready to move into; coupled with a good declutter (including hiding a basketful of DCs toys in the car during viewings!) we sold within 10 days.

Not that I'm an expert at selling houses but I went to view one last week and was put off because of a few things 1) they had had an extension and there was a crack in the ceiling where the new bit had been added on and water damage, apparently this had been fixed but they hadn't bothered to polyfill and paint the crack along the ceiling. 2) There was also some water marks on the ceiling where the shower tray had leaked, again it wouldn't have taken long to paint over it. It made me start to doubt the quality of the builders. 3) a carpet cleaner can work wonders and usually not too expensive so I'd do that if you have carpets. 4) the garden of this house looked untidy (tarpaulin left strewn over the decking, tools left out etc) I'd tidy up the garden. Don't think it has to have flowers and shrubs everywhere but should at a minimum not appear as wasteland.
5) I'd make sure property has been well aired before a viewing and all rooms are tidy (not just t shirts thrown on top of a wardrobe) I think although it's apparently a sellers market, I'd be embarrassed to have someone view my house in the state this one was in.

Thank you. Next door is an elderly lady. I gave her front lawn a mow last week and will continue to mow as long as we are here and trying to sell. Trouble is part of her guttering downpipe has fallen off. I do have a handy man and I think it will take less than 30 minutes to repair. I should get this sorted too shouldn't i.

I looked at quite a few websites for tips when we were selling last year. Things I hadn't necessarily thought of, but subsequently did, included

Hiding all evidence of pets (beds/food/toys) - you just don't know how potential buyers feel about animals

Same with medicines or anything suggesting something less than a totally happy, healthy life could be lead in your house!

I think these were from American sites, and might seem over the top, but basically you don't want to risk alienating anybody from loving your property!

Plus all the obvious ones of course - air the place, de-clutter, clean clean clean then clean some more, fresh flowers, pristine towels & bed linen, plumped cushions, soft lamps for evening viewings ........Good luck!

Carpet Cleaning (from just £25 room) – A professional clean will get your carpets looking like new again meaning buyers won’t need to budget thousands to replace them. That’s thousands that they can then add to their offer!

A CD (from £5) – Match background music to your home. A cool bachelor pad might suit some groovy jazz but a country cottage something classical. Create the right mood when buyers walk in. It works – that’s why shops play music.

Air Fresheners (from £1) – Every home has it’s unique aroma but chances are, you won’t notice your own. Play it safe by installing discreet air fresheners around the place, especially if you have pets – aim for Lavender, not Labrador.

Cinema Tickets (from £5) – Kick the kids out when you have a viewing. Aim to have as few people there as possible and ideally none – let the agent do it, it’s why you pay them. Let buyers walk around calmly and not when you’re just in the middle of uncorking that night’s supper.

Just a few tips I found!

Nooo not air fresheners. Far prefer the dog smell. We viewed a house where there was a dog. The air freshener snell stuck to me for therest oftheday. Unbearable! Although didn't stop us putting an offer on the house

I bought new towels and inexpensive new white quilt covers, DH was more than a bit It was a bit of a pain but for every viewing I changed covers and put out the pristine towels. We have spare duvets so once viewing was finished I rolled those quilts up(with new covers still on) and popped then in a cupboard.

Lit candles, saw this in a house I viewed and I liked the ambience and nice smells.

We have two sMall Dc's so dH and I took it in turns to do the viewing while the other took the kids out somewhere.

Agree with not using air fresheners, especially those awful free-standing plastic ones or overpowering plug-ins (although DH is a fan of the latter).....IMHO it makes it more apparent that there's something you're trying to cover up! We do burn candles when selling though - we have pets (dogs and cats) so some aromas are unavoidable however thoroughly you clean - and I agree with Tobermory that these create a nice ambiance too, although there's always going to be someone with different ideas, lol.....

One EA we used a few years back advised turning all lamps on before a viewing - but again others will say this shouts out that the rooms are dark and let's face it viewers can always switch them off to prove a point.

If conducting the viewings yourself you should always start and end with a positive feature. Our last house had the front door opening into our vast 36' kitchen with double height window that had amazing views.....so whilst front doors opening into rooms other than hallways are not to everyone's taste, there was no denying the 'wow' factor. Initially our EA was set to do viewings, but we sold after five/six and ended up doing the final three ourselves. After a tour of receptions, bedrooms etc we headed out to the re landscaped garden.....at which point our buyer actually burst into tears, bless her - so that obviously went well :@)

We also did the special duvet and towels thing.....and woe betide DH if he inadvertently squished a cushion pre viewing!

Ha. At your DH squishing cushions.

My DH thought I was absolutely mental buying special towels and quilt covers!

Declutter then declutter again.
Clear surfaces, don't forget the bathroom.
Clean it within an inch of it's life.

Special duvets and towels here too. Also, we had quite a tired carpet in the living room, clean but clearly past it's prime. After 3/4 unsuccessful viewings we popped to carpetright, bought a plain cream off the roll carpet and laid it that evening. It was no where near the quality of the old one, would probably only last 12 months, but it looked good and the house sold the next day.

Clean, especially kitchen, bathroom and floors.

Declutter, fill the car up with toys (child and man toys) and other big items that don't have a place to hide them away.

Let the air in. We sold in December so we opened all the windows for an hour and then shut them and whacked the heating up so the place didn't feel cold but was still fresh.

If you want to go for a smell, go for clean Washing smell rather than pot pourri or similar.

I'll be following this with interest, we need to get ours on the market so we can hopefully buy a house we have seen. I have pretty much painted the whole house from top to bottom over the last few weeks!