Active home owners thinking of making a move at selling their property in 2021 should start preparing their homes for the market ahead of time. Buyers are more nervous and cash-conscious than ever at the moment, so it’s important that you make the best possible impression on any potential buyers. Here’s the 10 tips to get your house ready to sell.
1. Declutter, But Keep That Personal Touch
Getting rid of all the excess stuff that accumulates in every nook and cranny in your home over the years is a very good first step. Put it in storage, give it away to those in need, sell it or bin it – but don’t keep it in your property if you’re looking to sell!
When looking to sell your property, you should keep in the forefront of your mind that people will be trying to envisage what the property might look like if they were to purchase it.
When looking to buy, we tend to imagine the home as if we already lived in it. We are creatures of imagination, and you have to play to people’s senses to show them all the fantastic living space that’s on offer in their future dream home.
If you’re looking to clear items check out our friends at AnyJunk, the household rubbish removal service. They will send out two crew members to clear all the junk or bulky waste from anywhere in or around your property and can arrange a same day collection in most cities.
2. It’s Not A Hotel
Do not make the property look like a generic hotel for prospective buyers. It’s important for you to leave some personality and meaning to the space.
When buying a property – people are often looking to buy into a lifestyle, as much as the bricks and mortar, so it’s important to express the attractive side of your lifestyle to capture a buyer’s eye.
You should consider moving any bulky and unappealing furniture that makes the room feel small and replace it with smaller, more modern furniture.
3. Put a Fresh Lick of Paint On The Walls
Repainting your walls and giving them a fresh lick of neutral paint and colour will make your home appear lighter and bigger. It also enables prospective buyers and viewers to imagine, more easily, how they might adapt the rooms to their own requirements and taste.
It’s much easier for any new buyer to move into and use rooms immediately, without the need to live out of boxes while they repaint some awful previous decisions. Just like that bright lime green feature wall that was once a brilliant idea, now becoming a nightmare for the first few weeks of your buyer’s new home.
4. Fix Up, Look Sharp
Many buyers want to move in without making changes. You need to cater to this audience, causing as little friction as possible in the buyer’s mind during the whole process.
If there are any minor repairs necessary – get them done immediately. For such a small outlay, the entire aesthetic of your property will increase. Not only does it show prospective buyers that you’ve looked after the property, it also creates more of a state of comfort while someone is viewing the property with intent to purchase.
Things to look out for when fixing up your property to sell:
- Holes in walls
- Broken door knobs
- Cracked tiles
- Torn or threadbare carpets
- Limescale
- Tile grout
- Wax your wooden floors
- Tidy up the garden
- Cut bushes back
- Clean the patio and furniture
- Cut the grass
5. Light Up The Room
We are halfway through the 10 Tips to Get Your House Ready To Sell. When doing up a property in order to sell, it can be time consuming and extremely expensive. Of course, you should only undertake serious renovations if you are absolutely convinced that you will profit from the sale of your property.
There are smaller things you can do to improve the look of a property. One of the key things that adds perceived value to your home is maximising the feeling of space and light. You should consider simplifying the area so light can make its way around the space on show.
According to Julia Kendell, an interior design expert for the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show: “Good lighting is key to showing a home at its best, both in creating the illusion of space and to produce an interesting and ‘designed’ look.
Use good-quality fittings to highlight good features and move the emphasis away from the less impressive. A statement chandelier or contemporary piece will add sparkle and raise the tone of the property substantially.”
If you can’t make use of natural light, or on the gloomiest of days, high-voltage light bulbs can be used to help make your home look more spacious, bright and cheerful.
6. Aromatherapy & Smells
Bad smells are one of the single biggest turn off factors for prospective buyers. You should aim not just to cover them up, but to fix the source of the smell.
This could be done by approaching a number of areas:
- Clear drains
- Wash your bins
- Open up your windows to allow for air
- Air the kitchen from old cooking smells
- Get rid of old and beaten up furniture
- Wash any grimy bed sheets
If you’ve been smoking in the property, it’s not the end of the world. Putrid smoke smells can be resolved by placing bowls of vinegar around the house and leaving it out for a few days. The smell of vinegar will disappear quite quickly after this and take the smoke smell with it when you next open your windows to let the smells out.
On the contrary, good smells will help to make your property feel more like an alluring home. While it could be impractical to cook fresh ginger bread cookies, cakes or fresh bread for every prospective buyer that visits your home – you could always just brew a fresh pot of coffee for that familiar homely vibe.
7. Research The Local Housing Market
Do your homework. Make sure you know the value of your home. You can start by researching the local housing market through a website like ResiAnalytics.
Take a look at the comparable sales that have gone through in your neighbourhood. This is a way to start to understand the appropriate listing price of your home.
Make sure you pay attention to the various cost of square footage, locations and features. Think about how these compare to your home and make a sound analysis.
As an example, if your neighbours property sold for £1,000,000, but your property is considerably smaller, it’s quite likely that your property will need to be listed for a lower price. Of course, a reputable consultant, like Norwich Home Buyers, can assist you with finding comps and determining the correct asking price for your property.
8. Go Professional With Photography
Many potential buyers search for homes online these days. It’s paramount that you include high resolution, high quality, professional photos of your home in your online listing.
Without the use of excellent high quality images, you may leave potential buyers sadly overlooking your home at the first hurdle.
Before you look to put your property on the market, go ahead and get yourself a professional photographer to take some snaps of your clean, staged, decluttered home.
9. Get Someone Charismatic To Show The Property
Make sure you choose a good representative to sell your property. You should be looking to work with someone confident and charismatic, who knows the local market well and can help you to achieve the fair asking price for the sale of your property.
It’s our job at Norwich Home Buyers to know what to say, when to say it, what we should be highlighting and how we can downplay elements to get a better price. We are also very effective at answering all of those tricky questions about the neighbours noisy dog or the loud children next door.
10. Consider Future Planning
We are living in the day and age of investment. Owners are increasingly investing in the application for planning permission of a loft or adding a rear extension to their homes before they look to put them on the market.
This process normally takes approximately 8 weeks to complete. Planning consent generally has a shelf life of 3+ years and can be passed over to a new owner.
If a prospective buyer knows they can add an extra bedroom or turn the kitchen into a bigger and better space, without the red tape and rules of a local council, this can be a huge inducement and help you to attract a different league of buyer.
To Conclude: 10 Tips to Get Your House Ready To Sell
If you’re looking to sell your property in Norwich, Norfolk or Suffolk, feel free to contact us today to have a friendly discussion about how we might be able to help.
Norwich Home Buyers have a wealth of knowledge on the local area. And we have a firm pulse on sale prices from all corners of the area.
Contact us today to discuss how we can help.