Did you know that Spring is often the best time to sell a family-sized home? Many spruce their properties up to make the most of Spring time blooms in the garden, longer sunlight for better natural light when viewers come around, and give their buyers enough time to get the sales process finished in time for moving home by the start of the school summer holidays.
Ready to take advantage? Check out our room-by-room guide to selling your property fast!
Start with the outside
Viewers need to be impressed with your property in the first five minutes of viewing. The outside of your property is the first thing people are going to see so that’s the first place to tackle to make a positive first impression.
Gardens
If you have grass, mow the lawn. If you have a bricked driveway, get rid of any weeds and moss. If you don’t have a power cleaner in your garage or shed, they’re available for hire and there’s also landscaping companies offering power cleaning services. It may be an idea to hire a company for a full spring clean of your garden.
Sheds
If you have a shed in your back garden, Spring is the time for maintenance after it’s withstood the wrath of the winter weather. Even if you’re taking your shed with you when you move, don’t let it be a hideous part of your garden! Give it a coat of preservative and a lick of paint.
If any windows are cracked, get them repaired too. Whether you’re keeping or leaving your shed, wood needs to be maintained. Better to get it taken care of before potential buyers take a look around. They won’t be inside the shed, so focus on the exterior and use the storage space for items in your house that can be stored outdoors in the shed. It’ll give you more space inside.
Greenhouses
If you have a greenhouse in your garden, clean the glass inside and out along with the frame too.
Fencing
A good tip for family sized properties is to secure the garden. Most people with either kids or a dog, will want a fence around the perimeter of the garden to keep kids and pets secure. If your garden is currently open, consider adding a fence.
If you already have a fence, make sure it’s looking good and any repairs needed are done. A tongue and groove wood fence isn't appealing with slats missing. Neither are fence posts left leaning after strong winds.
Wheelie Bins
They will be left for your buyers and given they’re outdoors all year, they show wear and tear and aren’t the most appealing part of your garden. You can buy wood storage units to keep your bins out of sight, and there’s also stickers and full panels you can use to cover up each side of your bin making them a more appealing part of your garden.
Also, viewers are likely to want to step into your garden so you don’t want your bins giving off offensive odours. If there’s any stenches starting to come from your bins, either give them a good clean, or check online for a local wheelie bin cleaner. Most areas have contractors who will professionally sanitise wheelie bins on the same day that they’re emptied. Some will even put your bin back in for you when they’re done.
Windows and exterior doors
No amount of window dressing makes up for dirty windows. Give your windows a professional clean and don’t forget about the frame. Sparkling windows are let down by cobweb clogged frames.
For those with a dog or a cat, you’ll also want to make sure there’s no muddy paw (and scratch) marks either on your doors or the window ledges where cats often jump onto to let you know they’re back and want in for a feed or where dogs scratch at your door when they want in.
Improving the shared boundaries of your property
Don’t let your neighbourhood ruin the chance of a sale. If you have a shared hedge in your front or back garden, offer to trim your neighbours’ side when you’re doing yours. Share the responsibility.
Likewise, pay attention to your street as a whole. If someone new has just moved in, there may be items on the street awaiting collection yet to be arranged. If there’s old beds, mattresses, sofas, televisions etc. left on the street so speak to the property owners to find out if a collection is arranged, and if not, help to make it happen.
Chances are, you’ll have things of your own to throw away. A midi skip is ideal for a small domestic clearance. If you’re partnering with someone else in your street needing items collected, it may be more affordable to share the cost of hiring a larger skip that both can benefit from.
Make your home easy to find
The easiest way for people to find your property when they’re coming around to view it is to have a for sale sign up as a marker. Some sellers choose not to put a for sale sign up, usually due to concerns of people stopping by for a viewing unannounced. If you’re concerned about strangers stopping by your home, potentially just to snoop around, this can be rectified by making it clear that viewings are by appointment only. If you choose not to use a for sale sign, an address plaque or even just large enough numbers on the front of your property can make it easier for buyers to find your home.
Inside the home
Home staging is used by estate agents when taking the photographs of your property to use in marketing materials. Homeowners can do this anytime prior to visitors arriving to view your property. To ensure you cover all bases, think through the route people are going to take to go from room to room. The tour will start from the entrance hallway. Start there and work your way through each room until you feel proud of what you have to show.
The hallway
The hallway is the first place people see when you open the front door. Fresh flowers here can make it more colourful and give a fresh inviting fragrance when you open the door. If you have border plants at either side of your doorway, this helps emphasise the scents with the scenery.
To make your hallway more appealing, minimise the items there are on display. Coat stands and shoe storage units should have only the shoes in use. Walking boots, work footwear and the kids school shoes.
Trainers for the gym, golf shoes and others that are only used on occasion can be stored out the way either in storage boxes or in wardrobes. For coat stands, there’s no need to have every coat, jacket, fleece and hoodie hanging up ready to grab and go.
Only the coats your family use frequently. The rest, put away in the wardrobe. If you’re limited for space, consider using your luggage to hide clothing items that’s used infrequently.
The lounge
The family sitting room is of paramount importance because this is where people will be spending most of their time as a family. The lounge is the family area that needs to look inviting and relaxing. A good way to make it feel more relaxed is to have side lighting and lamps rather than the main centre light on the ceiling. The softer the lighting, the calmer and more relaxing the room feels.
Decluttering here is important but not to the stage the home looks unlived in. If you have toddlers, a toy box is perfectly acceptable. People expect to see kids’ things, just not scattered all over the floor.
Have a look around the room and think about the things you don’t need. The more you can put into storage ready for moving out, the more spacious the room will look.
Kitchens
Kitchens close sales faster than any other room in the home. This is where to pay a lot of extra attention to the smaller details. For kitchens that haven’t had upgrades done in over a decade, it’s not a deal killer. Most people would want to add their personal choice to new kitchens anyway. Upgrading the look of your kitchen is much cheaper and more impressive to buyers anyway.
The main thing you need is space. Kitchen worktop appliances such as slow cookers, steamers and deep fat fryers needn’t be permanent fixtures. If your worktops look cluttered with countertop appliances, consider having a box handy to put away things when you know people are coming around to view the property.
For enhancing the look and feel of your kitchen, without spending thousands on a new kitchen, tiles, worktops and cabinet doors and handles are inexpensive ways to give your kitchen a makeover.
Retiling is an option to modernise splashbacks, as are tile stickers. If your worktops are looking worse for wear, they can be replaced inexpensively using a local joiner/carpenter. Another option is to use kitchen worktop vinyl for a quick and easy fix to update tired looking worktops.
A lick of paint on the cabinet doors and perhaps some new handles added can completely transform tired looking kitchens. To finish off the look and make it more appealing to buyers, add a fresh bowl of fruit either on the kitchen table or worktop if you don’t have a dining table. For a window dressing, fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil and parsley can make good additions as well as giving your kitchen some fresh scents.
For maximum impact on viewing days, consider home baking and try to stay away from cooking meals with a really strong scent such as curries and chilli-based dishes. Home baked cookies and a freshly baked loaf gives a great inviting smell to visitors. Just don’t burn anything. Smoke alarms and panicked sellers when the door knocks won’t impress.
Staircases
Bannisters are there as a rail to hold onto when climbing stairs. They’re not hanging racks or drying rails so if you use the post at the bottom of your staircase to hang jackets on, find somewhere to store them.
If your hand rails are painted, freshen it up to repair any cracks in the paintwork. If you want to create a talking point as an ice breaker when taking people upstairs to view the bedrooms and bathroom, consider using your photo frames to create a staggered stairway display.
Most frames are hung at eye-level usually 5 ft from the bottom of the wall because that’s the average height of a person. To create a staggered display that has a different photo in view as you climb the stairs, hang the photos 5 ft from the step, making sure there’s enough space between photos preventing them clashing too close together.
For carpeted staircases, make sure the carpet is properly fitted with no loose parts - you don’t want anyone tripping over.
Bedrooms
The importance here is on space and tidiness. Beds made, dirty washing in washing baskets and clean washing put away and not left piled on the end of the bed. If you have teenagers, definitely give the room a check before viewers arrive to make sure there’s no dirty socks and boxers lying around the floor.
If you’re lacking storage, consider buying an ottoman to use at the bottom of the bed. Wicker baskets can make a good storage solution for either inside wardrobes or on top of them.
Kids bedrooms only need decent looking walls and paintwork instead of anything tired or crayon scribbles over walls. The master bedroom is where to impress buyers with perhaps lush bedspreads, pleny of storage, fluffy cushions, a mirrored dressing table if there’s space and over headboard lighting could also enhance the feel of the room.
Something that should be noted is for homeowners selling a 2 or 3-bedroom property is that the bedrooms should be shown as bedrooms. Not as a 2-bedroom with an office or gym. If you are using a room for an office or gym, it’s best to put the room back to being a bedroom otherwise potential buyers can find it hard to see how the room would function as a bedroom. This is especially true for properties with box rooms.
The Bathroom
The bathroom needn’t be newly fitted, but it should be fresh and airy. Clean shower screens, bath panels, wash basins and if the sealer around the bathtub’s cracked, scrape it off and re-caulk.
Any toiletries usually left along the edge of the bath tub or lining window sills should ideally have their own dedicated storage areas. Corner shelves, under sink storage and bath racks can be used to organise toiletries better. Toilet roll holders are better to have on display than multipacks left in the corner.
To finish the look off, use clean and colour complimenting bath and pedestal mats with fluffy towels either on the towel rail or hung neatly over the side of the bath.
Tips to make the most of a viewing:
- Have your home heated to 16oC. It’s a comfortable room temperature but not too hot to make it uncomfortable for people with allergies or respiratory problems.
- Spraying air fresheners before people enter are handy for masking odours from cooking or tobacco products and smells from pets.
- Have all your curtains open to make the most use of natural light.
- For evening viewings, try to use soft lighting from lamps and wall lights rather than bright ceiling lights. Softer lighting can make rooms feel more relaxing.
- Use the viewing to find out things to help you choose the right buyer. Ask if this is their first time buying. If they have a property, is it on the market and if so, how are they getting on. Will they be moving into your property or is this an investment purchase? While these questions can make you feel like you’re being nosey, they’re important for deciding who to sell to. A chain-free buyer gets your sale through faster and property investors are more motivated to put in decent offers to get the sales process underway.
In summary:
With the right touches and an insightful conversation with viewers, properties can be primed to sell much faster than expected, and even in a slow market, attract offers over the asking price.
For expert assistance in getting your property on the market, piquing buyers’ interest enough to get appointments booked and closing the deal, give us a call on 01925 499599 or drop by our office for a chat. We’ll be more than happy to talk you through how we can help you get your property sold for the best price and quickly.
