How to make a good impression when selling your home

The simple days of being able to bake biscuits to impress people viewing your home and hook them with a sense of nostalgia are behind us. In today's world people who are viewing a home have a much different lens through which they view your property. So if all the old rules are null and void, what should you be doing to wow your potential buyers? Read on for some useful tips!

Dont ignore the exterior - Gardens are high up on priority lists at the moment with lockdowns illustrating to people how important they are. Make sure whatever porch, lawn or other exterior areas you have are neatly manicured, well decorated and as inviting as any other room in your home. Add colourful flowers to create a more inviting space, and spend some more time feeding the lawn before viewers start coming by. People will judge your home within the first 8 seconds, and what they see within the first 8 seconds is the exterior!

On top of manicured gardens and inviting exterior spaces, make sure that your perimeter is well established and boundaries like fences and walls are cleaned and well painted. Pick up any litter, rake up any leaves and trim hedges so that from the minute a potential buyer arrives, they feel good about the property and won't feel they are buying someone else's mess.

Create a home office - Even if you don't personally work from home, chances are someone along the viewing way will. It's important to stage your home to show potential buyers how they could use it. Even if your space is open plan and a viewer could easily put a desk in anywhere, stage one so that potential buyers can imagine themselves in your space. You could also find a way to illustrate the quality of connectivity which will be important for working from home. Consider having music videos playing silently on a television so that people subconsciously recognise the internet capabilities. The key takeaway here is illustrating that your home can be used as a functional and productive workspace.

Decor - When potential buyers come to view your home, they imagine themselves living in your space. Even though they understand your decor will not be there if they live there, it doesn't aspire to make them live there if your decor is outdated or an extremely specific, unusual or eccentric taste. Go for neutral colours, crisp white walls, clean and uncluttered worktops.

If your property is open plan, then use your furniture to create different areas like dining spaces, lounging spaces, kids play areas etc to illustrate how the space can be used. Create a clean, bright space so that people can imagine themselves and their furniture in your space.

Little touches - Consider the time of year, if it's winter, put out a few extra throws, blankets, pillows to create a warm and cozy environment. If it's summer, consider fresh flowers, wide-open windows and doors so that people are nice and cool when they enter. Always make sure your home smells nice, so that you tap into all of their senses. If you have a particularly good view, make sure those blinds and curtains are already open and if possible, create a seating area facing that way.

No kids and pets - People feel that they are intruding in your personal space if your child is perhaps crying or watching a show in a certain room. You want people to dwell in your space at their leisure for as long as they need to imagine themselves there and get a good feel for the space. Similarly with pets, some people might be allergic or even afraid of animals and you don't want to put them in an uncomfortable situation.

Light and bright - Ensure all the light fixtures in your home work, lights don't flicker and that all bulbs are functional as well. Allow people to see your home in the best light and turn on any lights that they want to. Similarly, make sure that all your windows and window trimmings are clean and can open to allow in as much natural light as possible.

Repairs - If there are any repairs that need to happen in your home, make sure you do them before putting your house on the market. This can be as simple as repainting or as big as an unfinished bathroom. You want people to see your home in the best possible condition. It seems counter intuitive to spend money on your home before selling it but it is imperative to create as few issues as possible for potential buyers to achieve your asking price and give them less leverage to negotiate.

Declutter - Declutter and remove any eyesores. Nobody wants to see your hobbies or filing strewn across the space. Especially big items like golf clubs should be packed away to allow ease of movement, but also to not raise alarm about cupboard and storage space in the home. With that being said, also don't shove everything into the cupboards because viewers will most likely want to open cupboards as well. It's the perfect opportunity to declutter for your own move as well.

Squeaky clean - Make sure spaces, especially the kitchen and bathroom are thoroughly cleaned. Ovens should be sparkling like new and toilets and bathtubs bleached. Nothing puts off potential buyers like dirt and germs!

I hope you have found this article useful and if you have any questions feel free to get in touch by CLICKING HERE.