Tips for preparing your house for sale

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while you’ll know that we have just been selling our house and as I think I mentioned this is 7th time my husband and I have bought/sold a house during our marriage - so we are getting quite experienced at doing this now!!

So this week I thought I would share a few different ideas and tips that I have if you're thinking about selling or if you have a business that helps other people style and sell their homes.

1. Emotionally detach

Before you get ready to sell your house the first and most important piece of advice I can give you is to emotionally detach from the property. Despite the fact this has been your home for however long, you need to let go and realise this is going to become someone else's place. With that in mind you need to take a long, objective look at your house and view it the way that prospective buyers are going to view it. From the moment you begin to interview estate agents they will start to tell you things you don't want to hear. You may have higher price expectations or you may not be ready to hear that the style of your house is not suited to the market of buyer you need to attract. If you have detached emotionally you will be better placed to make the changes you need.

2. Repair and touch ups and a good clean!

Unless your house is being marketed as a 'renovators delight', buyers want to be able to picture themselves living in your house and moving their furniture and family straight in. If there are unfinished jobs or things in need of repair this becomes the focus for buyers and makes them question what else might be wrong with the house. Most potential buyers have very little imagination - so the more 'perfect' looking you can make your house, the better! Think about whether your house could do with a re-paint, new carpet, or even a steam clean of carpets. Do you have pets that may be making the house smell? Ask your friends and family for advice on this as you're likely to not really see (or smell!) the house in the same way as someone visiting. Your real estate agent will also hopefully be honest with you about these things.

3. Have an 'open house box'

My final tip is about preparing for the dreaded and regular open houses. The way I manage this is to have an "open house box". In this box I keep the following kinds of items like fresh, clean (new!) towels for the bathrooms, high end soaps (e.g. Aesop, Bondi Wash or Planet Luxe), clean linen for the beds...things like that. As you go around and set things out also use the box to collect up all the bits and pieces you don't want on display - like dirty clothes and towels, phone chargers and your day to day stuff. Pack it all in to the box and put the box in the back of your car as you drive away. Once you get home you can bring the box back in and reverse the process ready for the next open home!

4. Set each room up for their intended use

A final tip for you is also to make sure you set up each room for their intended use so buyers can picture what the room should be used for.

We had this problem when selling one of our old houses (below). This room had always been set up as my office but was also the area where the front door was located, so was the first thing people saw when they walked in. We knew that with it just styled as an office prospective buyers would have trouble imagining the potential of this room. So we went to the expense of buying a second lounge and styling this room as a 2nd living area. It meant that buyers could see the house had two potential areas for relaxing and by including the study in the same room, buyers could also see the room could be used a number of ways, depending on what they wanted. Little touches to make people feel welcome, like fresh flowers or plants (or the 'Home Sweet Home' sign) also make a huge difference.

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Enjoy the rest of your day!

Clare x