Selling House : Things to Improve

JimmyTheWig

googler wrote: »

Remove family photos, portraits from everywhere and replace with neutral pictures.

Personally, this was a step too far for us when we sold. It was still our family home - we wanted to keep it that way.
Certainly doing this is the "right" thing to do, but we found that our photo wall got quite a few nice comments from people looking round.

krlyr

Mr_Moo wrote: »

Make the space you have work for your sale, with a clearly defined purpose for all of it. So out goes the dining room which also stores the kids toys and doubles up as a small study with a space for doing the ironing. It's a dining room so show it as such. And if you have spece flexibility, mention that - "oh, this used to be the kids play area but we've converted it into a <somethingelse>". Gives the buyer a chance to visualise how they might make it work for them.

Oh, and decluter )

This, and the comment about the spare room being a dumping ground, reminds me of a smart tip I heard before. If you're advertising it as having 2/3/4 bedrooms but you currently use one bedroom as an office or storage room, display it as a bedroom. If you have nowhere to shift your stuff, get creative - get some boxes you can put everything into, arrange them into a bed shape, and whack a sheet (with valance), duvet and pilllows on top. Voila, instant "bedroom", AND you've hidden a decent amount of junk!

Edit: Sorry, just saw Little Mo mentions that in her post!

seven-day-weekend

I don't particularly want to see pictures of other peoples' family on the wall (I want it to look like my house, not theirs), but it would not put me off buying if I liked the place otherwise.

However, some people may not be able to visualise it as their house if they are bombarded with pictures of other peoples' family, so I personally think it is a good idea to take them down.

Declutter.

Give each room a definite purpose.

No bathroom carpet.

No pet beds/bowls/smells.

Clean.

Most important, price realistically otherwise no-one will come through the door.

googler

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Personally, this was a step too far for us when we sold. It was still our family home - we wanted to keep it that way.
Certainly doing this is the "right" thing to do, but we found that our photo wall got quite a few nice comments from people looking round.

But you're moving out. Your home is now a product to be sold in competition with the other product in the housing market. If you want it to stay your home, then don't move, don't put it on the market.

When viewing, you want the viewers' attention to be on the house, not deciding if they know someone who knows your second cousin, who's up on your wall, or whether their children go to the same school as yours, who are also on your wall..... Anything which takes their attention away from considering the house itself is a distraction

JimmyTheWig

googler wrote: »

But you're moving out. Your home is now a product to be sold in competition with the other product in the housing market. If you want it to stay your home, then don't move, don't put it on the market.

When viewing, you want the viewers' attention to be on the house, not deciding if they know someone who knows your second cousin, who's up on your wall, or whether their children go to the same school as yours, who are also on your wall..... Anything which takes their attention away from considering the house itself is a distraction

I don't disagree.
Other than the fact that while you have decided to move out, you are not moving out at that point. A house can be on the market for months. I wouldn't want to live in a sterile environment for that time.

Sammy_Jo_4

I think everyone has covered the interior do's before selling your house. Make sure you don't forget about the outside. It's the first thing your viewers will see. You need to make sure you home has curb appeal and that they cannot wait to get in with a positive outlook. I've watched a lot of house hunting shows and so many times will a couple drive up to a place and immediately be turned off buy something in the yard, driveway or garage.

Keep your lawn groomed.
nothing in the yard but clean and fresh plants/shrubs/trees
sweep the porch, remove dirt/leaves/debris
clean the mailbox!
are their oil stains in the driveway? big turn off but should be cheap to clean off
How does the garage look? They WILL want to see it! Can they see their own car parked there when its theirs?
DEclutter the garage. put away tools and anything else that may be in the way. Make sure they can see the garage floor and how nice it is with no stains or cracks in the concrete. If it isn't something that you yourself wouldn't want to look at consider getting you garage floor coated. Its relatively inexpensive and can make a great impression on potential buyers. Maybe you could even do this on a basement floor with the same lack of appeal.

Last but not least...hows the backyard look? No pet presents I hope!

ultrarunner

drying up and draining board out of kitchen

kitchen worktop stripped of everything except kettle and possibly toaster

N|cky

wow, a lot of constructive things I can do! thank you everyone!

moneyistooshorttomention

googler wrote: »

But you're moving out. Your home is now a product to be sold in competition with the other product in the housing market. If you want it to stay your home, then don't move, don't put it on the market.

When viewing, you want the viewers' attention to be on the house, not deciding if they know someone who knows your second cousin, who's up on your wall, or whether their children go to the same school as yours, who are also on your wall..... Anything which takes their attention away from considering the house itself is a distraction

Don't agree with that. Your home is STILL your home until the day you move out. We all know anyway that a fairly-priced (as opposed to cheap/bargain price house) may take a few months to sell. I know I've made some concessions to the spoilt buyers of 2012/2013 in the way I'm getting my home ready for sale (ie doing a lot more decluttering/cleaning than I would in more "normal" houseselling times - to allow for that "spoiled factor") BUT there is a limit to this and these buyers are being totally unreasonable if they expect a homeseller to totally dismantle everything that makes their house a home to them just because they can because its currently that "Buyers Market".

I would say actually that it would be useful to leave the "home" factors there in evidence partly as a way of testing how reasonable prospective buyers are. Reasonable buyers will accept it and the more "spoiled - because I can - because its 2012/13" ones wont. If they won't accept a few personal possessions left around in a home for what could be months - then they are likely to want all their own way in every other respect too and would a seller really want to sell to someone who acts like "My way or the highway - just because I can"?

moneyistooshorttomention

The other point I would make against removing all personal possessions (what - and even the draining rack from draining board, etc!!!) is that I think a lot of houses will get judged as to how "desperate" the seller is partly by the amount of personal stuff left around.

I can't be the only one who thinks:
- empty or not even sure if anyone lives there because there don't seem to be any personal possessions around = they're desperate to sell

- fairly standard amount of personal possessions around = they intend to sell but aren't desperate (ie they will wait for a decent offer before selling or might even change their minds if no-one offers them a decent price).

- loads of stuff everywhere you look = are they sure they really intend to sell or was it a whim?

Hence - I think it's probably the best idea for sellers to go for option 2 (ie "fairly standard amount of personal possessions around") partly in order not to look desperate (less chance of a buyer "scenting blood" and instantly trying to knock a large chunk off the price) as it looks as if the seller isnt THAT committed to the idea of selling that they'd take a stupid offer for the place.