Want to sell my house - what work should I do to get it ready?

[Tiger2018]

Hi everyone. I'm seriously debating putting my house up for sale. Its a 4 bed detached mock tutor 90s house in a very desirable village location with good commuter links to major cities. (North west).

So I've got the below that I think needs doing:

Main bathroom - needs lino and new shower fixtures and screen fitting as had the old one ripped out as part of full redo of the room - I've got them just need to get them up

Master bedroom - new carpet (massive paint stain and old carpet anyway)

Ensuite - needs lino as again had the bathroom redone.

Stairs & landing - carpet - either clean or replace to a neutral one. Freshly paint it white?

I know I'll need to declutter as well.

Is there anything else that you would do before selling?

Garden - I'm not a gardener and its uncared for - get someone in to do a tidy up?

Help!

Definitely tidy the garden up. It doesn't need to be pretty or even have loads of plants.
"Uncared for" makes buyers think about what else you haven't cared for which is less obvious

I would declutter for certain, even if you pile the everyday dross you have kicking about into a box in the loft/cupboard/shed until the photos are taken (but seriously declutter anyway, as there's no point in carting stuff you don't need/want from house A to house B).

Do put the shower screen back up. Everything should be functional. If the flooring isn't fitting the space or similar then I would replace that but with an inexpensive version, but if it is functional and clean looking then I'd leave it.

Don't bother changing carpets. It's worth cleaning them or putting a rug over a permanent stain, but most new owners are either prepared to live with your choice of carpet until they can replace it OR will pull it all up immediately.

Do have the garden tidied up. Messiness is unappealing. Echo WhereDoesThisToiletGo, no need for new plants but old broken pots with bits of dead plant in, loops of hose left lying out, rusty wheelbarrows or buckets of rainwater just look a bit grim. So a nice tidy up with the lawn mown and no large weeds waving in the wind should be fine. The EA's photos are giving potential buyers their first impression of your gaff, and although I don't actually think most buyers are put off by a bit of mess, others do have difficulty seeing past it. It doesn't have to be showhome, just generally clean and uncluttered.

Really, don't buy new carpets. You won't get that money back and it won't make your house more sellable.

I've just put my house up for sale and I've fixed a few jiggly things a broken tile on a hallway and touched up paint but otherwise just a declutter and remove weeds from garden. My shower has seen better days but I'm not replacing it for sale. I think a good declutter goes a long way!!

Yes yes yes to declutter, clean and make functional. No to new things or redecoration unless you’re prepared to do the lot. A new carpet will make the walls and skirting look old, so then you’re repainting, except oops now the spindles and banister look old, so you paint them and bloody hell, now downstairs looks tired so paint that, including the doors, but now the rooms look… etc. It’s like Shane MacGowan’s new teeth: all they do is highlight how ropey his face is.

Find a good local estate agent. Ask them to come and look at it and advise you what's worth spending money on and what isn't. We did this- work we'd thought of doing we'd not have made in extra price what we'd spent. Work we thought didn't need doing did, and made us more than we spent. They said, leave the bathroom, people will redo it anyway, and you won't get back what you spend. But they told us to replace our beautiful, expensive wooden kitchen with a cheap white gloss one. And recarpet and paint in shades of grey... I reckon we got back, overall, well more than double what we spent- had w not had their advice, I think we could have even lost money by spending on the wrong things. (We actually brought our wood kitchen here with us to the new house, saving us even more money!)
A local agent will know things like 'houses on this estate never go for more than x no matter what' or 'name your price, this is so desirable an area and so little comes up that the decor doesn't matter' etc.

All I would do from your list is to declutter the house ruthlessly, and to tidy the garden, making it look really cared for (don't leave anything that is broken). I wouldn't bother with any of the rest.

In this market, if your house is in a desirable village, you will have no trouble selling it; your main issue will probably be finding somewhere else to buy, if you haven't already.

thank you so much for everyone taking the time to reply. I'm going to call the estate agent and ask them too. Eeekkk!
I've already found a house which isn't going on sale publicly but they've got stuff to sort with the land registry first so I've got time.