Preparing your property for sale

Bearing in mind a few tips can make your sale process a lot easier (and a lot quicker overall). These apply whether you’re selling through an agent, selling privately or doing both.

Tip 1:

De-clutter! 
           
What may just be “the day-to-day of life” for you is likely to be viewed by a buyer as being symptomatic of a messy, or (even worse) a poorly maintained, property. This topic links to Tip 2, which you’ll come to shortly.

But one issue which many forget is that you can have too much furniture in a property. This can be a big presentational issue. Too much furniture starves rooms of space, or (if poorly matched) just looks bad.

Even if you have a lot of furniture which you need to keep, consider putting it in storage or leaving with friends or family in the short term.

Tip 2:

De-personalise!

Remember that most properties are ‘personalised’ to the owners. They tend to show all the trimmings of home. But, importantly, they are ‘home’ for the current owner. Probably not ‘home’ for the prospective buyer.
           
The more you can remove the ‘personal’ elements, the better. Although sometimes difficult, it’s important and you should try to bear it in mind.

Often the things the mean the most to you will mean the least to a prospective buyer. See if you can move family photos, collectibles, etc (or at least make them less prominent). Obviously don’t just stuff them in a cupboard as a high proportion of buyers will want to look in cupboards to check storage space!

Tip 3:

Tidy, clean and fix!

In addition to ensuring general tidiness/cleanliness and doing essential maintenance, be aware of, and do something about, the following key areas:

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