What are your top tips for selling a home? - £300 voucher to be won

[EmmaMumsnet]

NOW CLOSED

If you’ve sold your home before, or nosed around someone else’s, you’ll know that first impressions count. There’s a load of advice out there on how to get your house market-ready but Purplebricks wants to hear from you with your top tips for selling and what you look for when you view houses.

If you have children...how do you hide store all the toys?! What about redecorating? Is there a go-to paint colour? Maybe you do small things like having fresh bedding and flowers for house viewings? Or do you clean clean clean and clean again?

Here’s what Purplebricks has to say: “MNers, let’s talk kerb appeal. What gets you going or just gets your goat when you’re looking round a potential new property? Have you got any advice you could share on how to present your property for maximum impact? Share it with us.”

So, whatever your tips are for selling, share them on the thread below and everyone who comments will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[Socksandshoes]

Another saying de clutter and clean. We viewed so many houses with piles of washing kicking around and rooms with so much in we couldn’t open the door properly to see the space.

[DitaFajitaJones]

Declutter, clean and ensure that everywhere smells nice ad homely. Think freshly baked cookies smells and clean white walls :)

[Liz0]

After some info about primary schools in Edinburgh. I've just found out that I've got a job in Morningside (we currently live in NE England) so will need to move in the next few months - certainly by jan 2019. Have a 7 and 4yr old so am wondering about school places for P3 and nursery recommendations. Would love to be able to walk to school/work. So any thought about s morningside, sciennes, gillespies, bruntsfield primaries - availability and other comments. After school care important too. Planning on investigating house rentals after deciding on school if possible. Thanks

[ailsasheldon]

Have a big declutter but ultimately if people can’t see past your stuff to make the house their castle,they need to have a rethink about what they are looking for.

[Ivegotthisme]

Have the light in during viewings even if it’s during the day. Light makes rooms bright and appear big. The benefits of light is that it also hides stains/marks etc.

Hide things in the car.

Don’t be afraid to let your house looks ad if no one loves there. Example no toothbrushes display and so forth.

Keep decorations minimal, less is definitely more.

[AngelDog]

Do Kon Mari before you even think about selling, and make sure you and your children are out when viewers come.

For both times we sold, we had an open day rather than doing individual viewings, and had an offer from the first day. It was a lot less stressful than doing lots of individual viewings.

[thingywotsit]

Eliminate smells! It's the first thing I notice and the first thing put me off a property.

When we sold our flat, I made sure that nothing was in the property that would create a lingering smell - including DH!

Also, get comfortable showing your home. A lot of viewings were done by me due to timings. Work out your 'patter' before you're thrown in at the deep end.

[BexyAnn]

Sounds silly but make sure the bedcovers are all straight and uncrinckled for the photos. Iron them if you have to.
An estate agent mentioned this to us when we sold our first house. Having looked at houses for sale it surprisingly really makes a difference on our first impressions. It seems to make the room appear more spacious even when it's really not.

[gamerwidow]

We had the house deep cleaned before we began viewings and I made sure all the clutter had been tidied away before perspective buyers visited.
A lot of it is just luck though we had an offer on our second viewing just through being in the right place at the right time.

[MerryTwinkletoes]

Smell! Nothing more off putting than a strong smell, even strong air fresheners etc are not nice and make you wonder what they're trying to mask!

Whenever selling we have a good tidy up/clean and air the house, then fresh flowers and that's it. Have sold 4 times, always within a week!

[IWasThere4Aug12]

Use an estate agent who had a really good photographer-everyone searches for homes online now and having great photos will get more people round for viewings

[frowner]

Declutter to give the illusion of space and have a good clean, cleaning the carpets if possible.

[Youssef15]

Cleaning and painting if possible after removing all wallpaper ( some people can change their mind just because the wallpaper is not nice)
Changing some kitchen and bathroom accessories if it's old style ( it can make a big difference)

[powkin]

Clean lines with no distractions, so when you go into each room you see the whole picture and not something small or out of place that distracts the eye. And no, my house never actually looks like this.

Next time I will definitely try to be available during house viewings, as think I can do a much better job selling the benefits of our flat than the estate agent could. If you have nifty features or new appliances or recently had the bathroom re-done for example, and you can explain all the benefits of where you live if someone isn't local, e.g. bus/tube/train links or local shops/pubs/restaurants. Even is EA say this stuff to their clients I don't think buyers necessarily trust them, whereas if you genuinely love where you live then that really comes across.

[tinkywinkyshandbag]

Hire me! I'm a professional declutterer. Do a lot of work helping people get ready for selling their homes.

[StickChildNumberTwo]

When we first looked at the house we went on to buy, the agent who showed us round was clueless. He claimed he didn't have keys to the garage, which was clearly untrue as we received the bundle he'd had when we moved in, and they were on there. He also tried to rush us away because he had another viewing (and this was our second one so we were clearly very interested), rather than letting us all see the house at the same time - it's a four bed, so it's not like we were all going to be crammed into one room.

So if you're going to have agents doing viewings make sure they're going to do a decent job.

My other pet hate is not being able to see a floor plan in the property details. One of our local estate agents doesn't do them and it puts me off from the start.

[April2018mom]

Good point about the floor plan.
I had never considered that. My piece of advice is to make sure you have a complete survey carried out by a trusted professional. Oh and make sure you ask lots of questions. Also research contractors carefully.
Whenever I had arranged a house viewing I typically remained in the background quietly observing everything that was happening.
Definitely get quotes from a few different people. Only hire contractors you trust. Any books were tucked away on bookshelves or piled neatly into a box in my bedroom under the bed. All paperwork was kept in files out of sight. Toys were displayed in a chest. Makeup and hair care products were arranged neatly on a table.
Cushions were on the couch. No wires should be trailing on the floor either. Food should be stored in cupboards in the kitchen. Although it is a good idea to have fruit in a bowl. If possible open windows and use air freshener to make the entire place smell decent. It’s also a good idea to use a diary to keep a record of what’s happening at each step of the process. Cutlery needs to be hidden from everyone in drawers.
Good luck.
Hopefully you’ll sell soon.

[Onesundaymorning]

Make the kitchen and bathroom as appealing as possible: clean any grout, hide bath products and keep worktops clutter free.

[Shuggas]

When we were looking to buy the biggest things that put us off were:

• smoking in the house
• being followed everywhere not given any space, so we felt we couldn't say anything about it to each other until we left
• mess - we understood houses were lived in but some were horrifying
• obvious work that needed doing that wasn't difficult or expensive, it just showed a lack of care and left us wondering what else would need looking at that wasn't as obvious
• we asked at one about crime, we were told house break ins were frequent but it's ok as we all know who it is so you just knock on and ask for it back

[lolly2011]

Make sure it doesn't look cluttered, Look at the front of the house and make a good impression. Check the photos before the estate agent uses them to make sure they look realistic.

[Pigeonpea]

De-personalise and neutralise.
When you are selling your house, it's no longer a home, it's a commodity - you need to show it to it's maximum potential to gain the maximum price.
Today, clean and fresh!

[SillyMoomin]

Throw half of everything in each room (not inc big things like beds) into a garage / attic / someone else’s house to effectively de clutter

Paint any obscurely painted walls a neutral cream / white

Open windows and turn all lights on, even in the day

[GMFLondon]

Definitely declutter and repaint dirty walls and touch up any chipped paint on doors and bannisters, but don't bother with big things like a new bathroom or replacing the carpet as the new buyers will have their own taste anyway and might well rip up the new carpet you just wasted money on.

Just have everywhere sparkling clean and looking best possible, and save some left over coffee to microwave on high when viewers come round, makes the place smell better than room fresheners or scented candles.

[TwoGinScentedTears]

Agree with everyone else really, de clutter, clean and tidy.

Also the smell of a house can really make an impact. So no strong lillies, no artificial air freshneners just a clean smell!

[HowsAnnie25]

Our kitchen is tiny so if we decide to sell, we will do what our ex next door neighbour did - take everything off the work surfaces before viewing and hide them in the car!! We would give the house a huge clean in readiness for viewings, including an oven clean and windows and conservatory. Make sure there's no weeds out the front of your house and that bins are out of sight.