Advertising feature How do you prepare your home to sell?

LAST week I discussed the joys and benefits of a continuous and effective maintenance and upgrading programme.

If you do this, your home will be ready to sell any time you decide – or have to move.

If, for whatever reason, you haven’t been giving your home the necessary TLC it needs and you have to sell, what should you do to get the best price in the quickest time?

We have found that there are two extremes; those who do nothing and wonder why the home doesn’t sell, or they don’t get the price they want or “need”, and those who spend a lot of money doing all the things they should have been doing in a well-organised maintenance programme.

Needless to say, in order to get the best net return, one should do something in between. Here are some of the essential things you should do:

Make the first impression a potential buyer gets of your home as attractive as possible. Tidy up the garden. Cut the grass, prune the trees and give them shape, take out weeds and shape the beds. This is a relatively inexpensive exercise and has a big impact on buyers.

I am reluctant to repaint the home as it is expensive and the buyer would most probably want to paint the home in the colour that they like. There can be some benefit however, in getting rid of rust on burglar bars and tidying up those areas that give the impression the home has not been looked after, with the buyer then knowing he has a lot of work ahead of him. The inside of the house must be spotlessly clean; all the light bulbs must work; the taps mustn’t be leaking; oil squeaking doors and generally make sure that the home is functional.

Make sure there are no animal or smoke smells or mouldiness.

Keep all lights on and curtains open so that there is lots of light and freshness in the home. There are people who can help you with readying you home for sale. Contact me on simon.oliver@seeff.com if you would like to discuss your home.