You’ve seen the news about property transactions and, even though the stamp duty holiday is drawing to a close, you’re considering a sale. Remember when people moved home without the stamp duty holiday?! It’s possible! Once you’ve decided, you’ll be thinking about presenting your home in its best light to ensure those prospective buyers come through the doors and feel like they could live in your home.
First impressions count and a potential buyer can lose interests in seconds if your home doesn’t have great kerb appeal. Once inside it’s important to wow them with your space and allow them to visualise how it would work for them. We look at some steps to take when preparing your property for sale….
One chance at a first impression
The first look at your home will no doubt happen through a property portal or your estate agent’s website, so getting the photography right is vital. We work with professional, established photographers with decades of experience who are briefed to produce photography that highlights the best features of a home. There’s nothing worse than a lovely property let down by images with poor lighting, strange angles and unflattering photography.
Making sure your property is show home ready will help the photographer to portray just how spacious the accommodation is and allow a potential buyer to see enough available space for their own belongings. Take a good look with an objective eye…what can you temporarily live without and remove from display during the marketing phase?
A critical eye
Those cables that jut out over the lower gutter, the water stains on your windowsills from previous flowerboxes and the doormat you bought in 2001…it’s easy to forget the details, but a buyer will see these immediately and may get the impression that your property is unloved. It takes minutes to rectify the small things but could make a huge difference to your kerb appeal.
Upgrading your door furniture can be a sure-fire way to increase the kerb appeal of your property – a new letterbox and door handle will work wonders! Consider investing in some new terracotta pots and a tray of geraniums. You can take them with you when you move, and they’ll give the front of your home a sunny and well-tended-for outlook.
Step into the shoes of a buyer
What’s in your eyeline when you walk into a room? Is it the multitude of kitchen appliances? Perhaps it’s the world of coats, shoes and umbrellas in the hallway or maybe the washing basket in a bedroom. If it’s the first thing you see it will be the first thing a potential buyer will see too.
Storing your personal items away will give a sense of space. If you don’t have the space to store them away permanently, consider booking viewings over a short space of time or a single day, which will give you a chance to put everything away but get it out when you need it.
Dress for success
Don’t be afraid to dress your home in preparation for viewings. They may be old, but they work – baking bread, brewing coffee and fresh flowers on the table all invoke a feeling of calm and comfort and are always preferred to the smell of a wet dog! Talking of pets, if you can, remove your pets to the care of a friend of relative for the duration of each viewing so that people can see the potential on your property without being hassled by the family Labrador!
A great Yorkshire estate agent
We have decades of experience in the Yorkshire property market, backed with a national network of 40+ offices and clients from all over the UK and beyond looking for a new home. We advertise our properties extensively on social media both on our branch pages and our national pages, and we utilise the national press with weekly advertising in The Times, The Telegraph and regular advertising in Country Life.
Talk to the experts
If you’re in any doubt about the best way to present your home, we can help. We have decades of experience in marketing homes just like yours and we’ll give you great advice on presenting your home. Our teams of skilled property experts have been advising people just like you for many years and will be delighted to help you ensure your property is presented at its absolute best.
