Selling Up – Preparing Your Home for Viewing

For most of us, moving on to pastures new is bittersweet. Yes, you get to enjoy your next home, eventually, but there is so much red tape in between that it can all begin to seem just a little too much. If you haven’t found yourself awake at 2AM, Googling things like ‘how to clean behind radiators’ or ‘how to clean a glass stove top’, for example, you’ve never been that worried about whether your potential buyers are going to be impressed at the viewing.

If you’ve waited a long time to sell your home, you might benefit from a few tips on how to prepare your home for the discerning eyes of the public.

First impressions

You only get to make one first impression. But people have many senses that go beyond the basic five senses we were taught in school. So, you have your work cut out. Let’s start with sight.

If your house looks run down from the outside, prospective buyers might roll up their windows and keep driving – and nobody could blame them. Houses aren’t cheap. Nobody wants to buy something they can’t show off. A lick of paint and a tidy garden will help you out more than you might think.

Next, smell and taste. Heat some cookies in the oven and offer tasty beverages. Happy people filled with yummy treats might be more inclined to buy.

Heat perception, balance, sound, spatial orientation … they all come together to hint at one thing: humans want to be comfortable. If your home is too hot or cold, with wonky floorboards, a noisy washing machine banging against a wall somewhere, and a cluttered layout that makes you feel like you keep needing to stand back to let people pass you by, you may be losing your audience.

Pets and stains

Get rid of both. Obviously, in the case of your pets, you don’t have to get rid of them permanently, but rather remove them for the day. You may also want to look into removing pet smell.  And for sprucing up those carpets, speaking from my own experience a strong vaccuum cleaner can work wonders.

Stains and attention to detail are major factors in dissuading buyers from putting in an offer on your home. Would you buy a wall with a large brown rainbow-shaped stain crawling messily across the bottom third of the wallpaper? Would you be happy with a mouldy bathroom ceiling that looks like it’s been coated in glue and lightly sprinkled with seasoning?

We all get used to the odd jobs that need to be done around our homes, but expecting a buyer to put up with any easy-to-fix maintenance issues is beyond reproach. It’s down to you to get things sorted.

You’re selling a lifestyle, not four walls

People don’t just want a big kitchen. They want a big kitchen in a modern home in an area befitting their income and aspirations. Try as you might in your efforts to oversell your property, it won’t fool many people for long.

Research your area’s core demographic and spend your time, money, and energy on preparing to sell your home as a lifestyle choice for people who fall within certain income brackets. Give the people what they want.