Preparing your home for viewings is very important. It sets the tone of how well you have maintained your home and helps your property sell faster. It can even increase the value of your property.
Declutter and Maintain Personality
- Get rid of all the unnecessary items in your home that have accumulated over the years. Put these items into storage or give / donate them to family, friends of the less fortunate.
- Potential buyers need to be able to envision what the property would look like if they were living there. Buyers often find this difficult, so make it easy as possible for them to see all the fantastic living space your home has to offer.
- Do not make it look like a generic hotel; leave some personality on display. This will give unimaginative buyers suggestions as to how they could decorate if they moved in.
- When purchasing a house, buyers are often buying into a lifestyle as much as the property. Show them the attractive side of your lifestyle.
- Consider removing any bulky furniture that makes the room feel small and replacing it with smaller furniture.
A Fresh Coat of Paint
- Giving your walls a fresh coat of paint. Neutral colours will make your home seem lighter and bigger.
- Lighter paint colours will also allow viewers to imagine how they could adapt the rooms to their needs.
- A lighter paint colour makes it easier for buyers to move in and use the rooms immediately.
- Create a good first impression – give the front door a new coat of paint as well.
Fix and Clean
- Make any minor repairs necessary – holes in walls, broken door knobs, cracked tiles or torn carpets. Many buyers want to move in to their new home without making any changes. Doing repairs will help alleviate the stress of new home buyers making these changes on their own.
- The residential cleaning experts at MOLLY MAID recommend cleaning your house until it sparkles; cleaning from right to left and from top to bottom. Be sure to get rid of lime scale, clean and repair tile grout, wax wooden floors, freshen your rooms and furniture and hang up fresh towels. This will make the place more appealing to viewers and increase your chances of selling your home quickly.
Tidy Up your garden
- Cut bushes back. Clean the patio and furniture of moss and dirt, and make sure to cut your grass. While this doesn’t add much value to your home, it makes your home more visually appealing.
Update your Kitchen
- The kitchen is the most valuable room in your home. It is worth the most per square foot and can be the deciding factor of whether or not a buyer decides to purchase.
- Consider re-facing your kitchen cabinets. This is much more cost effective than installing new cabinetry.
- Upgrading kitchen counter tops can be expensive, but can also increase value
- Declutter your kitchen countertops and put away any bulky appliances.
Light and Airy
- Wall mirrors make a room look much bigger and lighter. Consider mounting and mirror in smaller rooms or hallways.
- Clean your windows inside and out, and replace any broken light bulbs. Making your home feel light and airy makes rooms feel bigger and the property more attractive.
- Accentuate darker corners with lamps or lighting fixtures. You can also place a softer lamp in the bathroom to make it glow.
Turn on Your Fireplace
- If it’s a cold evening, or even chilly day, turn on your fireplace. This will create a warm and inviting atmosphere in your home.
Make your Home Look Pretty
- Make sure the windows are properly dressed with blinds or curtains as bare windows make a home feel impersonal.
- Use plants and flowers to bring colour, life and light to a room. This will also make your home smell nice. A small bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter can also have the same effect.
Get the Right Smells
- Unpleasant odours are the single biggest turn off for prospective buyers. Do not try to cover these odours up with air freshener, instead, locate the source of the odour and fix it. Clear drains, wash garbage bins, open windows to air out your home, replace smoke laden furniture, and wash all bed sheets.
- If you are a smoker, place bowls of vinegar around the house and leave them out for three days. Though the vinegar will smell when you open the windows it will disappear quickly taking a most of the stale smell of smoke with it.
- On the contrary, pleasant odours can make a home appealing. While it might be impractical to bake fresh bread, cakes or brownies for every viewer that visits your home, making a fresh pot of coffee will have the same effect.
