Sometimes it is easy to feel despondent that your house isn’t selling like you hoped it would. Now internet viewing is en vogue, potential buyers will have their own opinions formed before they even walk through your front door! Just visually changing the look of a few rooms could generate new interest or make a previous viewer see your home in a different way. Your estate agent will always be there to help you take more up to date photos and update your property’s profile. Always remember that your estate agent wants to sell your house just as much as you do!
Make sure that your estate agent details and photos will really sell your property. Imagine you are a potential purchaser and you are searching on a property website, there are two virtually identical property with similar prices in your area. One of the properties has an excellent write up and amazing, bright and clear photos, Which one would you choose? Honestly?
Consistently ask these two very important questions to yourself:
1) Have all the great selling points of my property been photographed and shown? Are the photos bright and clear?
2) Have all the great selling points of my property been written out?
You could have a newly fitted kitchen with fantastic gadgets but you only have one photo of the kitchen and there are no details about the kitchen or the gadgets that you are leaving. You could have a family bathroom plus an en-suite, shown in the photos is only the en-suite. Potential purchasers could assume you have a very small bathroom. Also, you could have a fireplace which has been photographed, it may not state in the details that it is actually a working fireplace.
These are important issues which need to be addressed if you are selling a house properly.
A few useful tips
What you will need to do first is walk around your property and take a good look at it. You could always ask a very honest friend if there are any improvements which they would make as a potential buyer. Ask yourself, are there any scuff marks? Is there peeling paint on the walls? Are the cupboards overflowing? Is the grouting tacky? If so, fix it! Take a look at your dining room table with six chairs, maybe this makes the room look cluttered. Remove two chairs and this will add instant space to the room. You will be shocked at how these minor undoing’s can put the viewer off.
Before your estate agent comes to take photos of your property, put yourself in the position of the viewer. Is this exactly how you would want a property to look if you were buying? Think deeply and make the adjustments which are needed. Make sure your house is clutter free and that there aren’t any dirty dishes or clothes lying around. Open all the curtains and blinds and turn the lights on so that the viewer will get a full feel of your homes’warmth. Make sure you are at home while the photos are being taken, as you can ask to see these photos before they are published on a property website. If you are not happy with the photos or details, ask for re-takes or re-writes. This is crucial in making your home perfect for viewers.
Remember to give your property a spring clean and remove as many personal touches and clutter as possible. You want your potential buyer to imagine living in your home, so this is vital that you make your home as neutral as possible. They will need to visualise their own family in your home, so removing clutter will make the rooms seem larger and remove unnecessary furniture which may be blocking the view of any hidden features. Viewers are always looking at your property as a whole so storage is always key. It is tempting to hide clutter in a wardrobe or spare room but viewers will always be looking at how big the rooms and storage areas are. A useful tip is to store unnecessary clutter in boxes, tucked neatly away in your garage or you could even ask a friend to store your boxes temporarily until the photographs are taken.
If your feel your property has ‘lost its touch’, it is time to give it a small budget makeover! Remember that there is potential in everything you own. That old kitchen dresser which suddenly stands out after you wallpaper the inside with a vibrant print or paint, which was previously viewed as a large, frumpy piece of furniture and unexpectedly lights up the room after being given a lick of something colourful. Also, if you dislike a piece of furniture but you don’t want to replace it, you could always paint it the same colour as the walls which will always make the room look bigger.
Always remember, paint, wallpaper and fabric are key to re-creating a brand new look for each room. Tester pots of paint may not cover a wall, but there is enough in the small bottles to paint old photo frames and then hang them on which was previously a dull, white wall. A tablecloth made by stitching off-cuts of fabric can brighten even the most boring dining table. Buying bright and bold bathroom towels or rugs can instantly add life to a room, making it look newer and more inviting. Re-organising your books according to the colour of the spines can instantly add bold patches of colour to your shelves. Adjust the focus of the living room, by organising the chairs so they face each other to add a more sociable approach to the room. Buy a few cheap plants and plant them in bright coloured pots to bring instant life to quiet and shy corners of a room. Any one of these minor changes can refresh your property at once.
If you still get people who are questioning whether all of this is worth it, make some changes and see what difference it makes. You will soon see that it is time to move onto the bigger stuff. Don’t forget to have a go; you can always change things if you don’t like them.
Remember this, it is all about creating or re-creating more interest in your property to sell your property. Never forget that your estate agent wants to sell your house just as much as you do.
Angharad Williams
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