Get your house ready to sell in spring

You can’t change your property’s location or aspect, but you can change its condition. With these top tips for presenting your home in its best light, you’ll be able to launch your spring sales campaign with a pristine property that has potential buyers lining up to view.

 

If your property has timber floors that are in poor condition or that have been painted previously and are showing their ware, consider painting them white, suggests Craig Williams from Elders Real Estate Mosman. “While it’s hard to keep white floors clean, it looks fantastic and adds almost a holiday feel,” he says. “It works really well in older houses.”

 

Nothing detracts from a beautiful kitchen or spacious lounge like grubby, marked walls. “A lick of paint can be reasonably cheap, but make the house much easier to sell for a better price,” Williams says.

 

Cleaning your house from top to bottom until it sparkles, and getting rid of the messy clutter, is the best thing you can do to improve you home’s aesthetics when selling. If you’re trying to sell an investment property, consider hiring a professional cleaner to whip through the main areas, including the kitchen, bathrooms, living room and master bedroom. The (tax deductible) cost is minimal compared to the potential gain, and your tenants will love you for it.

 

The best way to sell your home is to show people how it can best be lived in, so consider hiring furniture for the living room, master bedroom and patio. “Many vendors overlook the fact that the first glimpse the eventual purchaser takes of your property is a photograph – usually on a website or in a newspaper,” says Helen Farquhar from Instant Property Staging on the Gold Coast. “This image must convince time-poor buyers to put your property on their must-view list. In other words, it allows your property to make the cut for a site inspection.”

 

It’s the smallest repairs that can turn off fussy buyers, such as cracked tiles, broken door handles and chipped cupboards. Go over the property with a notepad in hand and make a list of all the small repairs you need to complete before showing the property to prospective buyers.

 

On the day of an open inspection, present the property in its most attractive light; this means turning on fans or air-conditioning units if it’s a hot day, opening the curtains and blinds to let the cool Spring breeze in, and turning on lights in any dark, dim spaces.