Top 10 Tips for Selling Your Home

Be one step ahead of your neighbours. Check out our simple top 10 tips for making selling your home a breeze!

1. Make an impression before they enter your home

Make sure that when a potential buyer walks up to your house, they are partly sold before they enter the front door. Mow the lawns, tidy up and put in new bedding plants, clean up any litter — including on the street outside. Put a new number on the door and paint the door if you need to. Clean the windows and window sills — perhaps put a couple of matching pots near the door to enhance the appearance (the great thing about plants in pots is that you can take them with you!).

2. Clean up

Make your entrance defined, clean and tidy. Tidy up and remove all coats and shoes. Make sure it’s bright and well lit. ‘Always show people in through the front door rather than through a back or side door and after walking through your newly tidied garden, this should lead on to them thinking of your house in a positive way.

3. Create a lifestyle

Make sure each room is well defined with a clear function. It should not be cluttered — but it should also not be empty and lifeless. When it comes to bedrooms, make sure all of them have a bed in them and if it’s a living room or a dining room, make sure it has the furniture to suit its use. If you can, set out the downstairs rooms in such a way as to promote a lifestyle of entertaining and practicality.

4. Update the kitchen

If you don’t have much money to spend the kitchen should at least be clear and clean. If you have a small budget in the kitchen, changing light fittings, using tile paint on wall tiles, painting dark cupboard doors with a lime wash or cupboard paint and replacing door handles with more stylish modern options, can update a dated kitchen without the expense of refitting it. If you do have the budget to refit the kitchen, keep the units in the same place to keep your costs down. You may just be able to replace the doors or get an end-of-range kitchen.

5. Spruce up the bathroom

Replace coloured bathroom suites with white if your budget will go that far. If not and you have to keep the coloured suite, then work with the colour in various shades. Repainting in the bathroom can give it the fresh look required. Use a grouting pen and renew the sealant around baths and showers to refresh any mildew areas. Fresh fluffy ‘show’ towels should be brought out for viewings.

6. Make it 'move-in-able'

A new owner will not want to work on your property — so do the easy jobs for them and dig out the big tubs of magnolia paint!. By spending a little on fixing all the little things and making the paint and décor neutral, the potential buyer will be able to see themselves just moving in and enjoying their new home.

7. Thin out your belongings

Often people are moving because they are short on space and want to move to somewhere bigger. However, you don’t want your home to look like you have run out of space as this gives a negative impression. Tidy up — and if necessary, hire some personal storage space for a few weeks until you have sold the property.

8. Avoid the barren look

If you take too much out of your home, it will look barren and lifeless. Keep it clean but give it a bit of character.

9. Get the kettle on

When you have a visitor to your house, it sounds corny but really do brew a fresh pot of coffee (even if you hate the stuff). The smell of it just gives the best impression and makes your home seem friendly and inviting.

10. Make sure you do a walkthrough on your own first

By planning the route through your home that you will take potential buyers on, you will learn to maximize the selling points of each room — e.g. if you have a large kitchen, present it with a flourish and tell them how great the large kitchen is for your social gatherings — then leave them to absorb the ambience.