The Great Hunt: What are your house-selling tips?

We moved into a rented property to sell our place - we had far too many belongings and there was no way anybody would be able to see past our clutter. We repainted (my in-laws offered to do it, but did a half-hearted job and it was extremely obvious where they'd touched up the skirting boards in fresh white gloss and not painted the door frames which were slightly yellowed satin, for example - so we redid the entire lot properly) and cleaned thoroughly - e.g. I scrubbed the floors with a sponge on my hands and knees rather than just giving it a quick mop! We left some pictures on the walls, lampshades, and bought a cheap second-hand sofa and a couple of cushions to give a bit of 'comfort'. We also left toilet rolls and handwash in the bathroom cabinet so that they weren't on view, but if anyone needed the loo they had that option!

We used a 'normal' estate agent - three different EAs had told us that the property was worth about £85,000, and that they'd list it at £90,000. We were adamant we could achieve £95,000 based on research/other flat sales in the block (one for example was slightly bigger but technically only a studio whilst ours is a 1-bed, and it had sold for the same price as ours when they were first built), and to list it at £100,000 to leave room for negotiation. They agreed to do this, and right before they listed it, two (I think a last attempt to get us to change EA but the fees at the second were way higher!) contacted us to give revised valuations - they reckoned it was worth £95,000 too... just because they are 'professionals', you shouldn't always trust them! We had an offer just over what we'd expected within a few weeks of listing the property.

Also before they listed the property I asked to check the details they'd written. The EA was insistent that he'd do a good job of them, but sent them anyway. I corrected basic information (third floor, not second) and typos (girder/gurder, fairy lights/fairly lights, 'was' instead of 'has two sash windows') so he corrected these. I also made sure we had a floorplan as a lot of adverts don't include these for some reason, even though when looking at properties I find they are really, really useful! The floorplan was quite amusing thanks to the software not allowing curved walls (e.g. semi-circular bathroom and curved hallway!) but it was close enough

Kirsty75 wrote: »

...Can anyone tell me where the £8000 differential goes???

You know that big shiny BMW they turn up in?

AndyT678 wrote: »

No they don't. I hate them and it would be likely to drive me out of the house and create a negative memory of it.

All the other stuff is spot on though. Clean, declutter, attend to minor maintenance and do whatever you can to get a bit of kerb appeal. A few flowering plants go a long way.

Me too. A lot of them trigger my asthma (the reed kind are really bad) and aside from that, they immediately make be wonder what smells the seller is trying to cover up.

And the smell of dogs / smoke / damp overlaid with air freshener is often more unpleasant that the original smell on its own would have been.

Sold our Bungalow in January.

Sold within a couple of days through a local estate agent, we accepted an offer at a price we were happy with.

Before selling we de-cluttered, turned our 3rd unused junk dumping bedroom back into a usable single bedroom.

Painted everywhere in Magnolia or Cream.

Took down picture & filled/painted all the holes.

Purchased hanging baskets & flowering plants in nice pots.
kept the grass short & regular weeding.

Cleaned all the windows inside & out until they sparkled

Jet washed the driveway.

Got everything serviced that needed it.

For viewings we parked our cars up the road so there was plenty of space for agent & viewers.

We were very happy with our agent & the work they did to sell the property & the after sale help we got.

I would say be realistic, and get on with it.
I sold my flat which wasn't the easiest of flats to sell at a fairly difficult time to sell, priced it realistically, had a realistic expectation. Plenty of interest as so as it hit the market, a few silly offers, a few more realistic, and within a few weeks of being on the market one of those realistic offers had been upped to £1k less than my original target and a deal was done.
Another lady living on my floor with a nearly identical property which was better as it had a balcony, was talking about selling hers before me, faffed about so hers went on the market after mine, then was taken off for a while, it eventually sold a year later for slightly less than mine despite being a better property.