How do I sell my house FAST?

[BibiThree]

We're putting the house on the market next week and want tips to get people over the door and fall in love with it?
We're in the middle of neutralising all the rooms, pale colours, removing personal things and de-cluttering (i.e. filling MIL's spare room with our junk things)

Anything else we should be doing to attract interest?

Lots of photos of the kitchen and bathroom(s) on the estate agent's website.

Pictures of outside space, make rooms as light as possible by whatever means, houseplants in all rooms.

I was going to stage a few plants outside in pots, but couldn't have any inside, I have two year old twins, they wouldn't last half hour!
We do have a new bathroom, but the kitchen is now 13 years old, not awful by any means but dated. May paint tiles to refresh them ... or will that just look cheap?

Competitively priced, your house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
Never say no to viewers no matter how inconvenient
Declutter
Lots of photos and a Floor plan online.

I would just make sure they're really clean, maybe whizz round with a grout pen. I've seen some disastrous tile paint jobs. I think old kitchens tend to look dingy but you can easily sort that with lighting and polishing everything until it gleams.

Painting the tiles is a BITCH and smelly and a bit expensive.

I just did it in here last year.

Never again.

IKEA has these very cool thingies you can put over them.

Or have a splashback fitted over them.

A lot of houses for sale here have outdated kitchens and bathrooms.

An instant buzzkill.

Look at houses like yours on Rightmove. Note what stands out in the pictures, and emulate/avoid those things.

Rugs break up the floor space, and make it look smaller, so take them up.

If your dining table isn't nice enough to be uncovered, put a good tablecloth on

Clean matching towels in bathrooms, and only a few, aspirational toiletries

Plain duvet covers on beds - loads of people leave yucky floral things on the spare beds especially

All outside tidy, weeded, clean front door and windows, nice mat etc - really welcoming

Then once you think it's dressed, go round, and take photos as someone coming to view would see the house. Get a friend (pref who has moved a few times) to be brutally honest about what they see

Okay:
new towels for bathroom ... check
boxes ordered to store clutter ... check
80% of toys remvoed/hidden ... check
kitchen polished to within an inch of its life ... check
windows gleaming ... check

I'll get my friend to come round to cast a critical eye too ... eek! It's all so real now!

If your house if priced at a level that people can afford to buy, it will sell. Do a lot of research on what is for sale in your area, make sure you are not priced higher than equivalents. Check one of the websites that give sold house prices for your area and see what people are actually paying rather than what is being asked.

Do a search on Rightmove for new property added, that's your competition rather than the stuff that's been languishing on the market for months and months.

Check the Land Registry report for price movements in your area. The news might be trumpeting house price rises but these are country wide figures skewed mostly by London and the South East.

Good luck. Where are you in the country? People might be able to tell you more about the local market.

The house price search is absolute nonsense; you can have two very similar houses side by side but the one that was sold was dated and needed work, the other that is for sale, is recently renovated to high standard and ready to move in. House price indexes don't show you the state of the house sold, just the price.
There could be massive difference in price between the similar houses in the same area. Often justified, sometimes wishful thinking.
If interested in area, I would never rely on indexes, I'd go and see myself.

Ours going on tomorrow hopefully.

I have decluttered. Painted hall (sticky hands everywhere). Fresh flowers and plants. Nothing on windowsills to let in most light. Bought some throws and cushions to dress beds (old bedding a turn off). Bathroom completely empty except white towels, poncy toiletries - floor totally bare so that even though it's tiny it looks great in photo.

In the garden I edged and mowed the lawn. Kids toys away. Patio tidied and lots of plants in pots. Table, chairs, parasol set up for photo.

Oh god I hope we sell quickly - I will never be able to maintain with a 5 year old and just walking 1 year old. Arrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!

We have moved several times, and personally, I always insist that I (and kids) are out of the house, and that the estate agent shows them round. That is part of what I am paying for.
As a buyer, I would always prefer to go round with the agent, and for the seller not to be there.

Sold house price search is not rubbish. It's still common to come across estate agents who say...oh yes...no x went for x amount last year when sold price indexes show that nothing sold for that amount in that street. It's just another tool in doing your research.

A house here recently did an open afternoon, hosted by the agents, it had a sold sign up 2 days later.

I think location is a big thing to be honest, some houses will always go fast.

We are waiting to pounce on a house about to come on the market. As long it is not ridiculously priced, we are not bothered about clutter, light, open days, kitchens, bathrooms etc. We just want a house in that location.

Otherwise use rightmove and price yourself just under the houses that are your main competition.

the smell of baking (bread/cakes)....

Leave strategically placed hints of lifestyle...empty bottle of champagne in the right place

£20 asking price.

Gone in a week, promise

Ebay lottery

price price price

if you really want to sell.......

location you can't change
anyone wiiht half a brian will work out that the towels and duvet covers will be leaving with you!

Price.

Nobody gives a flying fuck about fresh-baked bread or flower arrangements.

I sold my house 2 years ago by putting a "For Sale" notice on the gate at 7am one Friday morning (country road). At 9am I got my first phonecall, 3 viewings by Wednesday - all 3 made offers.

I wanted to sell so didn't fuck around with the price.

Yes, they were selling themselves 2 years ago. Don't you think that in current market you need to do everything. Price is key but why not do the flower arrangement and de-cluitter as well?

I wasn't in the UK 2 years ago, the UK market had already taken a downturn and I didn't want to get caught out where I was - so I took the bull by the horns. I'd have got more money if I'd sold before. But you have to be realistic - if you want to sell you, sell at a price your buyers think is appropriate.

I could still be sat there today squeezing lemon juice on stuff and dreaming of an extra 50k if I'd taken an alternative route.

where did you sell?

I sold in Belgium. I'd seen the arse fall out of the housing market in the US in 2007, shortly followed by the UK. The Belgians were in complete denial about banks/lending/etc. and I knew I couldn't face being stuck there in neg equity and I was basically unhappy. So for me, I really "needed" to sell - it wasn't a case of just fancying another house down the road. I accepted an offer 15k less than my "ideal" price and was happy with it, because I really did want OUT!

Since then, the prices in that village have fallen a further 40% or so - I actually feel quite guilty having sold to someone I know has been left holding a lemon as it were. On the other hand, they were mostly cash buyers so took out a very small mortgage... and they were from that village so were planning on living there until they died. I'm just so bloody relieved to have sold when I did.

Personally I would never, ever, ever buy a house just because of flowers/cushions or any of that crap - obviously there's a huge difference between show home and 90 year old man who's been hoarding for 50 years and has a rat problem!

I honestly do think it comes down to price. You can take a look all over rightmove and see beautiful, well-maintained homes - but they're not even getting viewings... so I guess the flower arrangements are not the be all and end all. Just my 2 penneths worth having been there and done that.

I think price is important (have certainly walked away from lovely houses that were stupidly priced, or where the vendors were looking to make every penny they could), but the fact of life is that in some areas there are a number of houses about the same all on the market, and you have to make people pick your house out of that. Also, if people are viewing a lot of houses (we've relocated a few times, so view 5 houses a day in blocks of 3 days when we've done that), you want to be in peoples mind as 'oh, that was a nice house', rather than 'that one with all the junk and needing redecoration before we could go near it'

I do know someone whose house languished on the market getting feedback such as cramped, no space, small sitting room, and it was just all their stuff making it look like that. Some serious decluttering and removal of all the extra furniture, and the feedback changed totally and it sold in a week