The fateful hour which could cost, or earn, thousands

Kirsty Mcluckie on last minute home staging

From the plethora of home makeover programmes there can be few people who aren’t aware that when you are selling your home it helps to declutter.

From removing family pictures, to tidying away toys and games and vacuuming away pet hairs, we know that the best chance to sell our properties comes when it is de-personalised.

Some of us might even go as far as trying the old trick of baking bread or brewing coffee to impress viewers.

But a recent experiment by insurance firm Axa shows just how much seemingly insignificant staging mistakes can cost in a sale and how minor errors when showing your property can lead to big losses in rental or sale returns.

This can be something as simple as having your bathroom blind up or down, taking photos from the wrong angle or having the ironing board out.

These small errors added up to a 20 per cent lower perceived value when Axa showed a test property to prospective buyers and tenants.

The test property was a one-bedroomed flat with a shared garden that was shown to 1,000 members of the public.

One half of the sample saw the property in its “before” state, and the other half saw it after a “mini-makeover”.

What is interesting is that the makeover totalled an hour’s effort for a photographer and his assistant.

Despite these changes costing nothing and taking little effort, they boosted the property’s value in viewers’ eyes by 21 per cent.

Those who saw the “before” version of the property estimated it at £609 per month to rent, while those viewing the “after” version put it at £752 per month – a difference of £1,716 per year. When applied to the sales price, this could mean the difference between selling the property for £180,000 and £220,000.

Only 5 per cent of those who saw the “before” version gave the property an excellent rating compared to 47 per cent of those who saw it “after” the quick makeover – a tenfold increase in positive responses.

Improving a sitting room included tidying away laundry drying on radiators, turning the TV off, straightening up books on a shelf and positioning lamps to create a soft light.

Arranging curtains to be neater – apparently blinds should always be a third of the way closed for maximum impact – and positioning a few plants to combat a sterile feel also added to the general attractiveness of a room.

In the kitchen, householders should tidy away all surfaces while shoving items under a bed in the bedrooms only highlights flaws such as a lack of storage space – they should be kept out of sight in a wardrobe.

While many of us have experienced the last minute panic as viewers ring the doorbell, I don’t think many sellers grasp the value of leaving time to prepare a home for sale properly.

There can’t be many people who have the potential to make £40,000 in an hour, so allowing time to make sure everything looks as perfect as possible, is definitely worth it.

Particularly as a few minutes spent straightening up, decluttering and – my own particular favourite short-term fix – spraying copious amounts of furniture polish in the air to make the house smell clean – might just end up earning more money than most of us can in a year.