Free things you can do to help sell your property

Richard_Watters

I see lots of properties that people are selling, or thinking of selling. So many of them can be made much more saleable with a just bit of time and effort, and without spending any money.
Here’s my tips to help you sell your house without spending any money:

1. Clean it! Don’t just get the hoover out for 10 minutes. Do a proper clean – wash every surface, scrub every stain, bleach the grout, wash every window (inside and out). Use cleaning materials with an attractive light fragrance, lemon is good. When you’ve finished it should be how you’d expect to find a room in a quality hotel.
2. Tidy! Remove things that shouldn’t be seen - newspapers and magazines, toys, food packaging, etc.
3. Tidy the garden. Prune, cut and weed. Get rid of any junk.
4. Allow as much natural light to enter as possible. Switch lights on in any rooms that seem dark.
5. Get rid of nasty smells. Your house probably smells, even if you’re a non-smoker and don’t have pets, because most houses smell! Although you’ll be used to it, so you won’t notice. A good clean helps but use a smell neutraliser as well.
6. Add nice smells. Seems corny, but there’s nothing nicer than freshly brewed coffee and the smell of fresh bread. Avoid aerosol air fresheners – most people don’t actually like the smell of these. And will wonder what you’re trying to mask.
7. Add flowers from your garden (if you don’t have a garden or it’s out of season you might want to spend a couple of quid here)

To some of you the above will be blindingly obvious and I apologise in advance to anyone who finds this patronising. In my experience though, very few people get 10 out of 10!

DRP

it would probably be more appropriate to add this to the sticky 'Selling' thread at the top of the page.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5383

Propertyfan

Get rid of nasty smells.

Yes, and make sure you have a shower or bath.

I agree with the points of the first poster. Great advice.

I went to see a very nice detached house. It was a new-ish built bungalow. It was really nice to look at from the outside. The owner lived next door - he must have developed the land and built a second home to sell. He used this second house as a place to leave extra clothing, hi-fi equipment, toys etc. It was a right dump inside and the shower room looked like it had never been cleaned. The kitchen had thick layers of dust.

The property was very nice but the presentation was awful. He used the home as a tip. What a terrible way to market a home! From what I gather it's still on the market. Perhaps if he ever gets round to cleaning it, he might sell it!

The appearance of a property can have a huge impact on a potential buyer's perception. Not something to underestimate! It would be like wanting to buy a new car and you go to the showroom and see the car you want and it's all dirty because the salesperson forgot to give it a clean. Naturally, you'd think "oh, it doesn't look as great as it did in the brochure!" It would create a negative impression. Same is true of a dirty or excessively messy looking home.

Benshires

I suppose everybody has different standards and tastes. We viewed a house last week, the owner had a cat (which I could smell). They had cut up bits of surplus carpet and glued them to the windowsill in the bay window so the cat could lie there in comfort.
But funniest of all, the owner pointed this out to as as if it was a great feature!
The house is only 3 years old and otherwise pretty nice, but a bit smelly. They also had the catfood bowl on a worktop and a litter tray inside the back door.
We left with a negative feeling about the house, maybe if we were cat lovers it might be different!

Richard_Watters

Thanks DRP, I've done what you suggest.

RAS

Another spammer promoting their own advice company. Reported.

HB58

RAS wrote: »

Another spammer promoting their own advice company. Reported.

I can't see any reference or link to an advice company?

Richard_Watters

Sorry RAS, not sure why you have a problem with my post. I doubt I'm the only person posting on this forum who has commercial interests in the property industry, and fail to see why posting about something that I thought others might find useful is unacceptable.
If I've broken any rules then let me know which, as it's not my intention to be a "spammer".
By the way, there are a lot of easier ways for people with commercial interests to generate interest and visits to websites than by posting on a forum like this one which (quite rightly) doesn't allow links or plugs!

moneyistooshorttomention

Must admit to sitting here grinning ruefully about this advice to present a house well, as the one I am buying is poorly marketed and looked like a tip when I viewed it and I've had to "see past" both those points to think "Actually, it hasn't been badly-maintained for all that it is such a tip". What LessonLearned referred to as a diamond in the rough ...

Fraise

I'm not sure that just cleaning, decluttering and putting the coffee percolator on will ensure a sale. It will make the property look more presentable, though having coffee on the go when viewers come round looks a bit 'obvious' and may actually put some people off, they might think you're trying too hard to sell.

Having it clean, neat and tidy will obviously make the property look better, but it won't change the actual property itself, and it won't alter its location. It's helpful for those who have difficulty in envisaging it spruced up, but some people see through the mess and clutter and will want to put their own stamp on it and redecorate etc. They may also thin they're getting a bit of a bargain by the fact the seller hasn't bothered to spruce it up.

Richard_Watters

Having the property presented as well as possible won't ensure a sale - but it will help. A lot of people just don't/can't see beyond the clutter. The profile of people who post on a forum like this, i.e. who think and care about what they do, is different from most I think.

Whilst coffee/bread smells might be obvious, believe me it does help. I always do it when I sell a property. The worst that happens is that people at least know you're trying and won't hold that against you.