How to get my property ready to sell

[acupofteamakeseverythingbetter]

We're looking to put our house on the market towards the end of the year. Does anyone have any tips to get our house ready?

The kitchen is old and the garden is too but I don't think we want to spend any money on those to get them looking nice. I will probably jet wash the patio and buy a few potted plants

Decluttering is at the top of my list but what do potential buyers look for in a property and what would turn people off?

It's hard to see the wood for the trees sometimes in your own home and we're currently living in our first property so don't have any experience when it comes to selling!

I'd just buy a throw to go over the sofa and a couple of cushions you would use in a new house. You can hire a carpet cleaner from Sainsbury's supermarket. They are easy to use and really brighten up tired looking carpets and rugs. Think about smells too. Have air fresheners. We have one just inside the front door a vanilla one. It masks any smell from our dogs. If you have a lawn just giving it a grass cut and tidy up the edges to get a neat finish of the lawn will all make a difference. I'd not be spending a lot.

Agree with aspirational living.

Family photos wouldn't bother me as a buyer but don't have loads maybe.

Take of fridge magnets/pictures etc.

Make electrical wiring neat, no extension leads etc.

Have flowers in vases.

Clean windows.

No cobwebs/dust.

Clean the skirting boards.

I need to sort out all of this in my own home!!

Clean.

Kerb appeal - make sure the outside is tidy, no flaking paint, dripping gutters or dodgy windows or weeds in the pavement etc. I went out and guerilla gardened the verge outside our last house to tidy it up!

Clean again.

Declutter until you think you might give Marie Kondo a run for her money. Box stuff up and put it in the loft.

Clean some more.

Make sure doors aren't crooked - especially wonky kitchen cupboards (tighten them up) and fix any dripping taps.

Clean until you have no cleaning cloths left!

Get good photos done - it's worth paying for them and don't forget the obvious things like making sure beds are made and loo seats are down. Dress each room for the photo and make sure bathroom stuff is to a minimum - bottles of shampoo, loofahs and the like should all be put away.

Ps this time of year is very handy for cheap bedding plants which look good in pots or stuck in the ground to fill awkward spots.

B&M is good for cheap throws, cushion covers and general knick knacks for dressing a room.

KievLovertwo it's about depersonalising the space, making people feel like it's already theirs. OK maybe some exceptionally clever people can see through that and decide that they want to buy it anyway, but not everyone can.

And when you are selling your biggest asset it's worth doing whatever you can to increase its appeal to buyers.

To get the best price for your property, it is essential to make sure it looks its best. This means having any necessary repairs done, deep cleaning and decluttering, and making any cosmetic changes that could attract a buyer. An article on what you need to do prior to selling your house can be found here:

price it appropriately. also check this buyer's thread it is the way forward now tough sellers market

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4896260-question-for-property-buyers-seller-experience-in-2023

The most important thing is to price it appropriately for the area, house type and current market.

If you’re selling a difficult house in an unappealing area and/or in a difficult or slow market, you will have to make more effort, but I’ve only ever tidied and given a lick of paint to scuffed areas, and supervised and directed the photos, and have always sold rapidly for more than asking price.

I think effortful ‘staging’ is generally needless effort on the off-chance your viewers are too unimaginative to be able to visualise the study as a bedroom, or imagine their own family photos in place of yours.

This house was a party-scarred former student HMO with JOANNE SUCKS COCK scratched into the paint in the kitchen, and so dirty that we had in cleaners who usually deal with crime scenes, when we bought it.

I agree with tidy, declutter and clean... a price reasonable. If you do those things it should sell fast.

No point spending money on cosmetic things, the buyer will want to do them to their own taste.

Structural things its up to you... say it needs a new roof, you could add one but might not make that money back or you could sell as is but expect its price to reflect the work needing doing.

The truth is the decor and cosmetic state didn't put us off any houses, the one we are buying is in the WORST cosmetic state (torn wallpaper and actual graffiti on walls etc...) of all we looked at.

What mattered was the actual house layout itself for us, we fully planned to redecorate, add new kitchen etc... so non of that bothered us. We needed enough space more than anything.

Things that put us off houses we saw included:

• Not enough bedrooms (our main priority)
• No space for a fridge freezer anywhere (this happened in TWO houses, who doesn't own a fridge in this day and age?)
• Damp (one house CLEARLY had damp issues, dealing with damp is a pain)
• Smoke soaked (guy chain smoked 60 a day for 40 years in the house)
• Dirt (hadn't been cleaned in 40 years either)
• Traffic noise (might have overlooked if the house had been perfect though but it had no room for a fridge lol)

We disliked open planning, weird layouts and grey everywhere decor but would just offer less factoring in the cost to fix those things.

You see that would make we eye roll at the owners! I'd much rather see family photos!