Selling your home ... advice please.

H

Henny Penny

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We have put our house on the market, but because we live in the Midlands we expect it will take quite a while to sell. In the meantime I am wondering what I should do to help market the house ... other than the fresh coffee/baking bread tricks. I have been cleaning like a divil ... and have the slowest painter in the world painting the bathrooms to freshen them up ... but just wonder what else should I do? Anyone looking at second hand houses ... can you tell me what puts you off ... or encourages you? Thanks
 
Henny Penny, What would put me off is not so much what the house looks like inside ( you can always change things to suit ) but what is outside, for example, planning notices, building work, are there any bypasses in the pipeline, that sort of thing but mainly the building work would worry me.
 
The selling guide [broken link removed] should give some good advice. Best of luck with the sale.
 
Clutter can put people off. Hide everything in cupboards, in the attic, under the bed!
Remove any unnecessary furniture. For example, if your living room has 3 sofas squeezed into it but it can only really fit 2 comfortably then remove one of them if possible. It can really make a room feel so much bigger.
If your bedroom has two bedside lockers in it then remove one of them to allow more floor space.
If you've got a monster coffee table taking up most of your small living room then consider removing it.
Of course doing this is all dependant on you having a friend or relative who is willing to store your extra furniture for you while you are selling the house. My aunt is a saint and has come to my rescue twice!
 
Clutter is your enemy!
Take a walk through your home and check it out as if you are looking to buy it. Does the house 'flow', can you make your way through the house easily, when you enter a room do you have any furniture blocking your entrance...
Look at the surfaces, is there chipped paint, any marks on the wall, nails without any pictures... Do you need to walk around a pile of shoes at the door / bottom of the stairs, does your coat rack take up half the width of the hall...
When we sold up our apartment last year, we did a walk around and realised that a lot of the rooms were looking 'tired', after 4 years without being painted they looked a bit worn... So we painted most of the rooms, painted the doors, installed radiator covers, changed handles on the doors and kitchen presses... We regrouted around the bath, and scrubbed the grouting to get it clean, it didn't look dirty until we had a cleaner bit to compare it with! Keep toiletries to the minimum, some posh soaps / bath stuff on show the rest hidden....
We rented out a storage space and dumped all the stuff that was around into it, clothes, suitcases, books (lots of books), some furniture, all our office stuff (lots of PCs), most of our CD / DVD collection...
Viewers open cupboards / wardrobes, if they do make sure that there is some space in them, they dont' want to feel that the house is short of storage!!!
Get all the windows cleaned weekly while your selling, natural lighting is your friend!
Re-arrange your furniture to give the best use of space... if moving the bed to under a window looks better do it, even if its colder for you to sleep there!
Check out the 'House Doctor' if you have satellite tv, it will give you a good idea of areas of concern.
 
Thanks so much for the replies. I have been dejunking ... so much that my husband can find nothing ... he says that it is like living in someone elses house ... which I suppose is what I'm after really.

Keeping the grass cut in this climate is going to be a nightmare ... praying for dry weather. I have been cleaning the windows too ... which is a day's work in itself ... and also washing the doors ... it's amazing where children can put dirt! Eliminator sponges are great for this job.

Any more hints would be welcome.

Thanks again.
 
Hennypenny

We just got a sale agreed on our house recently and this is what we did. We painted the outside and inside of the house to freshen it up and it was money well spent. If the outside looks nice, people will want to see more.........a lot of viewings are as a result of "drivebys" first.

Declutter as much as you can. Clean out all drawers eg, shred paperwork you dont need, bills, cards etc. Make sure the house is spotlessly clean and tidy...esp the bathroom and the kitchen......I found once the major clean was done it was easier every night to just wipe down the countertops, clean the floors, and keep the rooms tidy. Get rid of any washing hanging around (put it in the car for the viewings if you have to) I bought 2 huge Laundry baskets (made of straw that matches the pine beds!!) from Heatons. Fold all towels and sheets etc in hot press, having viewed a few houses, its amazing how many people forget this .......it makes the cupboard sooo untidy.

What else........empty the bin every night so there is no smell...........also clean the hob and oven............Put a nice vase of flowers on the kitchen table or window. Cheap ones will do............Tidy curtains by using tiebacks if you have them. Open the windows a little bit for air and if the day is a bit cold or damp (like right now) then set your heating to come on for a hour or so before the viewing, makes the house lovely and cosy.........

Tidy up leaves and rubbish from garden (too hard to cut grass at this time cos of rain) but neat and tidy, get a pot with flowers or shrubs in it and put outside the front door..........

Hope this helps!!!!!
 
Agree with the declutter advice and the need to have a clean bathroom and kitchen, but also wanted to mention the marketing.

Firstly I would advise that you chose an estate agent who is on myhome.ie (this might be less of a factor if there is one local agent in your area with their own website).- many people start their search online. Time is precious and your buyer might live abroad or too far away to call into the estate agent.

Secondly, whoever you chose to be your estate agent, watch them like a hawk. In my experience they are usually very lazy, including in the preparation of brochures. How many "deceptively spacious close to every conceivable amenity" properties can there be out there?! Read brochures for other properties and steal their best ideas (but don't lie). Think about what buyers really want- I saw one clever brochure for a small house that the sellers had obviously been planning to extend- it mentioned that the house had a larger water tank which was ready to go if the new buyers wanted to extend. A good example of targetting your audience- that house was going to appeal to people buying to extend and this message told them that they could save some money by chosing that particular house- money they could use by upping the top price they were willing to pay!

Depending on your audience, you might want to compile a list of information, such as local shops, schools/creches, gyms, resturants, local pub etc. If you are within commuting distance of a big town, note down the best route and time taken to get there. The estate agent should do this but, again, they might not. (They are perfectly capable of telling potential buyers that it takes 40 minutes to get to Ballywhererever when you know that it can be done in 30). Remember, your buyer is looking for a lifestyle, not just a house- if you happen to have a brochure for the local arts festival or similar, leave it on the coffee table with the fresh flowers (actually, I'm not a huge fan of the fresh flowers- when we were buying we got to recognise the estate agents' flowers!)

Photographs are another thing that estate agents are lazy about. I currently live in a house which I initially refused to view because it looked shocking on myhome.ie- no charm, no distinguishing features! To this day I wonder how the estate agent could have failed to highlight the potential hiding underneath the grot. When the photographer comes, you may have to do their work for them- tell them if you want to include (or exclude) a particular feature- just today I saw a brochure that had a picture of some particularly attractive plaster coving! If you have something no one else has, put it in (within reason, obviously).

Insist on proof reading the brochure before they print it. Doing that when I sold my first property (a small flat) stopped the estate agent from spending my money on a brochure which underestimated the floorspace by more than 10%.

Usual apologies to any estate agents reading this who are not lazy- of course they exist, but it best to prepare for the worst.
 
Thanks golden mean for your very sound advice. We did not go with a myhome.ie agent because of our location, we would have little confidence in the SherryFitz and other agent. I know myhome is well known but if the agent would put you off a property no amount of advertising will work.

We got the brochure for approval which is unimaginative and uninspiring. The house is supposed to appeal to a family buyer but yet there was no mention of local schools and ammenities. I have asked for this to be included as per your advice.

Thanks again for the good advice ...

HP
 
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