Want to add thousands to your home’s value and make sure it sells FAST with a few inexpensive tips? We’ve pulled together our favourite ways to spruce up your home. These tips will help you get the price you’re after, and if you’re in a hurry it will help you sell your house fast!
1. First Impressions Count
People will decide if they like your house in the first few seconds when they have their viewing. So make sure the outside looks clean and welcoming. A lick of paint for the door and window frames, and repair any missing tiles in your roof. Get your garden in good condition, cut the grass, and paint any fences on your property. These outside areas of your house are so important and are the first interaction with potential buyers.
Make your house easy to find. Your house name or number should be clearly visible from the street. Keep your front door in mint condition, clean it and paint it if required, and don’t forget to check your doorbell works.
People often dump coats and shoes in the hallway, so spring clean entrance areas before visitors arrive. Everyone should be able to glide into your house without turning sideways.
2. Clean Clean Clean
No one likes to see a mess when they arrive for a house viewing, fix any cracked tiles and clean your taps – limescale allowed! It would be a good idea to pay attention to those rattling doorknobs, squeaky doors and torn carpets. Fill your bathroom with fresh towels. Make your home somewhere your visitors would want to live.
Keep your windows sparkling and make sure all your light bulbs work. Clear any dust from TV cabinets or bookcases, vacuum behind your furniture, and tidy away any laundry.
3. Declutter
Ornaments and oddments help a house look like a home, but it’s easy to overdo the clutter. Take any excess to the charity shop or your relatives, or pop stuff in storage.
Buyers will want to imagine themselves living there, so remove anything personally. Hide anything like family photos, holiday souvenirs, children’s artwork or trophies or certificates.
You won’t want to strip everything out or leave your home looking like an office, so leave enough behind to show your home is being lived in. Just keep things anonymous.
Serious buyers will look inside your cupboards and storage areas, so keep them less than 75% full. Keep your kitchen workspaces clear. Consider popping bulky appliances like deep-fat fryers into temporary storage.
4. Make the Space
Light and spacious rooms attract buyers. Aim for neutral shades such as light pastels, or add wall mirrors to make hallways and small rooms look larger. Lamps can help you banish any dark corners and leave doorways open where possible to let light flood through your house.
If your curtains are dark and heavy they’ll dominate a room, and leave it feeling smaller and dimmer than it should. Can you replace them with neutral-coloured curtains or blinds? This will help you get a good price for your home.
5. Coffee Break?
Visitors will take a good look at your house, but don’t forget their other senses. Why not make a pot of fresh coffee when potential buyers arrive? Or pop a vase of fresh flowers on a table.
Pop a few bowls of coffee grounds or vinegar around your house to clear out any smells, and open your windows before each viewing to change the air.
Sprinkle baking soda across your carpet and let it sit for a few hours before vacuuming it. Once you’re done, invite a friend around and ask if they can sniff out any remaining odours.
6. A Sense of Style
Buyers want a lifestyle as well as a house. Help viewers imagine themselves living in your home by setting the dining room table for dinner, or by putting drinks and flowers on the patio table. If you have an office space, make it look like it’s ready to welcome a worker.
7. Turn it Off, and Back on Again
We all have our own ways of living. Did you turn your spare room into a gym or a walk-in wardrobe? Perhaps you’ve stored antiques in your garage. Great for you, but prospective buyers might struggle to imagine living in those spaces. If you advertise a house as having three bedrooms, it should have three bedrooms.
8. A Warm Welcome
We all know it’s lovely when you visit a warm house. It feels welcoming and gives off good energy from the get-go. If it’s a cold winter’s day, ensure you’re radiators are on when your visitors arrive. Check the weather when people come calling and give your visitors a warm (or cool) welcome.
9. Visit Show Homes in Your Area
Trends change, but you can be sure estate agents will keep on top of developments. See what’s on display in a show home for inspiration.
Many living rooms hold too much furniture, so see what the estate agents suggest. Show homes often subtly make it clear what function each room has and visiting them can give you handy tips for sprucing up your future homes.
10. Find the Right Estate Agent
A good agent will take time to learn what customers want from home. They’ll make sure only the right people arrive at your door. People who share your ideas on what turns a house into a home; people who can imagine themselves living where you used to live.
Contact us today and find out how we can help sell your house quickly. We’d love to hear from you.
