Most home sellers like to improve the presentation of their homes for sale. But sometimes it is hard to look objectively at the home that has become so familiar over many years and see what needs to be done to make strangers feel at home. The following ten tips aren’t very difficult or costly to undertake - but will pay off in sales dollars.
- Clear clutter, room by room. Take out personal photos - you want buyers to imagine themselves there.
- Get a professional clean, especially windows.
- Tidy up the garden - make it look neat and easy to look after.
- Check the outside of the house for neglect - cobwebs and old toys, tools lying around etc aren’t appealing.
- Get rid of any signs of neglect or poor maintenance in the house itself. Replace dead light bulbs, fix squeaky doors, broken blinds, dripping taps etc.
- Unless it’s a child’s bedroom, or bedrooms really are too small, put in a double or queen bed or a buyer will assume a bigger one won’t fit.
- Put the best quality sheets you can afford on the beds. Make sure you iron them.
- Call in a few favours and borrow good furniture to replace any old saggy or stained sofas etc and get rid of anything you can possibly do without.
- Board your pets with a friend and clear away pet clutter.
- Make liberal use of fresh flowers.
