You don’t have to spend a fortune and hire a team of professionals to spruce up your home pre-sale.
As a seller you need to make smart choices about where to spend money in order to attract buyers.
The easiest way to improve the value of your home is to give needy areas a great paint job. Identify the areas that are most in need, prioritise, and address whatever you can within the time you have allowed yourself. If you don’t have much budget and/or time – focus on the living areas and front aspect of the home.
Outside the home check for and tidy away garden hoses, rubbish bins, bicycles and washing.
Clean your property thoroughly – both inside as well as outside. Ensure that there are no pet smells in the home – this can deter would-be buyers unnecessarily. Some of the most important focus areas are kitchen improvements, landscaping, presentation and minor repairs.
Ensure that your garden is tidy and well-trimmed with weed-free, well turned beds. Planting a few seasonal bedding plants can make all the difference to the kerb appeal of your home. If you have a courtyard or patio – a few well-placed potplants which are green, healthy and well watered will enhance the appeal of this area of your home.
Attend to basic maintenance – go round your home and identify all of those basic maintenance jobs that need to be done. Leaking toilets, taps, grubby walls needing a coat of paint, loose handles on doors or cupboards and so on. Attend to worn/marked carpets and refresh any dirty grout in tiled areas.
Target areas that building inspectors will look at – correct any problems with subfloor drainage, fix leaking pipes and taps, clear the floorspace under the house and also clean out all of your gutters.
Attending to the items mentioned above will help to attract the best selling price. Well worth the trouble of a few days effort! If you feel that you need an outside opinion – your real estate agent is well placed to provide you with additional advice on how you can spruce up your home to attract buyers and maximise your selling price.
