5 Ways To Spruce Up Your Home For Sale

With the help of a good agent and quality advertising, getting prospective buyers for your home should be an easy task, especially with the current buyer demand for properties. But you can also help the process along by presenting your home in its best possible light. Not only will you get more house viewings, but you’ll also create competitive interest and ultimately secure what every seller wants, the highest price for their home.

Therefore, it’s worth spending a bit of money on home improvements, but the experts agree, you don’t need to go overboard with a full interior design job or spend thousands on a new kitchen or bathroom. Small things can make your home appealing to buyers on a number of levels. Check out our open house tips for sellers and get your property market ready.

1. First impressions are everything

Us humans are fickle creatures. We make snap judgements about people all the time. It’s the same when viewing a home. A seller has a brief window of opportunity to appeal to a prospective buyer. From the moment someone walks up the driveway they are taking notes about the state of the concrete, the condition of the exterior cladding, the materials on the roof, the look of the front garden and even the colour of the front door.

Benjamin Smith, a principal at Brisbane Real Estate says “People start to buy the house when they pull up in their car. If they don’t like what they see there, you’re off to a bad start.”

Do a walk up to your house as if you were a potential buyer and take note of any broken fences, overgrown hedges, rubbish, weeds or bushes that need pruning. It helps if you bring someone with you with a critical eye. Sometimes we’re blind to our home’s own shortcomings.

2. Cleaning, decluttering and neutralising

Inside the home you want to focus on getting it immaculately clean. As well as basic vacuuming and dusting, this includes wiping down everyday appliances like the rangehood, fridge washing machine.

“If there are any dirt marks anywhere, people will pick up on it,” says Marcus Washington, a sales consultant at Harcourts in Pakenham, Melbourne.

He also suggests keeping anything personal out of sight, such as photos, kids artwork or pet bedding. Buyers will be trying to imagine themselves living in your home, so the key is to remove any barriers to the visualisation process

3. Fixing and replacing

Dripping taps, peeling wallpaper and tatty tiling won’t sell your home for a good price, not if all buyers can see are potential problems and work to do once they move in. It doesn’t cost much to fix up broken or old fixtures and fittings, and the small amount you do fork out is money well spent. Consider giving doors and skirting boards a new lick of paint too, it will help to make your home appear newer.

4. Concentrate on the kitchen

As the heart of the home, a clean, spacious functional kitchen can really win buyers over. But is yours up to scratch? A new kitchen can add 4.6% to the value of your home, say property experts, but if you can’t afford a remodel there are lots of cheaper ways you can spruce up your kitchen to get more house viewings. For heaps of tips and tricks check out How to Stage Your Kitchen for a Home Sale .

5. Know your target market

Styling your home is about knowing your target market and what kind of lifestyle they lead. What features of your home can you emphasize to appeal to this market?

Adding small accessories such as cushions, coffee table books, plants and coordinated ornaments are cheap ways you can give buyers the impression of a home rather a sterile box. You’re aiming to evoke an emotional response in a potential buyer so they get the ‘this is the one’ feeling and decide to put in an offer.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading these ways to spruce up your home for sale. If you’d like more inspiration and insights for selling your home simply signup below for our monthly newsletter and we’ll deliver it straight to your inbox!