Get your house ready ‘for sale ‘
Thompson’s estate agents of Timperley, Altrincham share some tricks, tips and advice.
So you have made the decision to sell your home and move. You have spent almost over a year locked away and you have realised that your current home doesn’t offer you what you need any more? Its decided, time to look at selling – surely that’s easy?
What can you do to help maximise your property and its potential value, making sure you give yourself the best chance of finding a buyer?
Getting your home ready
This goes hand in hand with getting the price right.
Spend some time looking at your home, look for any odd jobs that need finishing off, de-cluttering is a big thing – make your home look attractive and presentable with a place for everything, or even box up some stuff put it away just while your list and potential buyers come to view the property. Whilst every home is LIVED IN, we all seem to want to view a home clean and tidy looking spacious. Yes, this is very different to how we will fill the space, but we see it time and time again. Your buyer can’t see past other people’s belongings.
This is also perfect canvas for photograph. Clear pictures of each room, decluttered and tidied will come out so much better than low quality photos of a cluttered and messy room.
Important – kerb appeal
What is kerb appeal? This is your first impression of your house, either the front shot on your particulars or if potential buyers are driving buy to scope out the area. Most importantly as people pull up for that all important viewing, how does it appear – do they get ‘that feeling’. Its all about that kerb appeal.
Tidy the front garden/driveway of any debris, old leaves etc, sweep and leave a clear surface. Often people look at power washing to give maximum clean effect.
Look at your porch/front door area. Is the door clean, is the letter box broken? As little as cleaning your front door or re-screwing back the letter box can have a huge impact on presentation. Plant pots and a nice door mat – these are at a small extra cost, however, can really set the scene of a welcoming home.
Back garden – Similar to the front of a property, back gardens can hold a lot of weight on a potential buyer’s discussion.
Especially since lockdown the garden area has become even more important and valuable to a home, many people have raised the bar over last summer’s lockdown, so gardens are at an all-time high in terms of presentation and upkeep. Do not be left behind.
Have a look around and asses your garden, what did it look like when you bought it – or if it wasn’t great how do you want to present it? Lawn- does it need mowing; flower beds do they need weeding?
Any broken fence panels that need fixing or taking it the extra mile painting/staining – a weekend painting wooden fence panels can give an old fence a new lease of life. Tidy up any debris, put anything away like toys and maybe even pot some new plants and help brighten the garden. Again a few pounds spent wisely here and there will change the appearance considerably.
Windows – you look AT them everyday, but your buyer will look THROUGH them.
CLEAN THEM inside and out (if possible) clean windows especially as we head into the nice weather. This will transform a room, letting in natural light through shiny windows instead of it struggling through grubby or dirty windows from a winter build up.
Bathroom and kitchen – The buyers’ biggest cost to upgrade.
This is where your potentially buyer will be noseying around, however if it is clean, tidy and de cluttered you are able to give your potential buyer a reason to be positive about your home. Kitchens need to look super clean and presentable and any flooring needs to be clean and up to date, tiling and grout can be your friend here if you can maintain or replace, with maybe a coat of paint on old kitchen cupboards.
If your bathroom needs a bit more than a de clutter you might want to think of a lick of paint and a clean of the tile grout – yes you can do this yourself, some neutral bathroom paint and a tile grout pen and a bit of your time can go a long way and turn a drab bathroom into a neutral, clean, spacious, fresh bathroom.
Additional bathroom tips-
Clean – shower doors can look grubby so get them scrubbed clean
Mould – get rid! This is normal everyone has it but that does not mean your potential buyer wants to see it – a quick mould removal product will do all the hard work
Store any toiletries out of the way and make sure that toilet seat is down!
The heart of the house – the kitchen!
Family property in Timperley and Altrincham is in high demand, but many buyers have high standards with a big wish list. Top of that list is a large family room or a family kitchen
This can be a tough one to present, used daily, 3 meals a day, dog in and out footprints the list is endless however with a bit of discipline this can become easy! Big thing is de-cluttering - removing items and making sure pots pans and everything else is put away. Dependent on how far you want to go a good clean and tidy is good enough – however you can investigate getting your kitchen cupboards wrapped or painted or if you’re feeling confident do it yourself, you can even buy tile paint. Again, picking a neutral colour can freshen up, lighten, and brighten a room appearing more attractive to your potential buyer.
Additional kitchen tips
Keep all work tops tidy they can easily become a dumping ground for keys, post and bags
CLEAN EVERYWHERE splash backs, extractor hoods skirting boards sinks – deep clean with make the property look fresh.
Pots pans plates, cutlery everything put it away and put food away in cupboards.
Keep it light and airy
We want as much of that natural light in as we can – open them blinds draw back them curtains and let the world in. There is nothing worse than a dark drab room.
If you have a few rooms that are tired and drawing back the curtains just will not work look at what you can work with. Spend a weekend painting freshening up walls with a neutral colour, a fresh lick of paint will not only make it look like new but can help bounce the light around and help identify the space within the room.
Price
Important to understand that there are agents out there who will just promise a high price to win your instruction to sell. Although it may seem promising over pricing can lead to extended time on the market, taking longer to generate viewings and offers and even after a long period of time the listing can go stale and end up at the bottom of the search on the property search portals then you may be forced to reduce your property to a price initially discussed. You want all your hard work in preparation to list your property to be seen
Once you have mastered the art of de-cluttering, painting and sprucing up your property it is ready for a valuation and getting your house on the market. That is where you give us a call! We will visit your property and asses its value and provide you with a figure there and then and its then down to us to take professional photographs, obtain a floorplan with full measurements and get the rooms descriptions. Once obtained we will produce you a brochure to approve and then get live on Rightmove and Zoopla the 2 biggest property search engines.
What are you waiting for? Get the paint brushes out and make sure to give us a call and book in your free valuation
0161 532 44 55
07960342858
