Preparing your property for sale
Great presentation is crucial to the selling process. In our experience, a well-presented home is far more likely to sell in a shorter timeframe and for a better price in any market conditions. This is because buyers are inspired by beautiful presentation. It gives them confidence in the quality of your home and helps them fall in love with it.
Putting effort into presentation ensures your property looks its best, with the greatest features highlighted and any negatives minimised. It also tells buyers that you’re a serious seller, which is very important in today’s changing market.
Buyers stay longer at opens if a property is nicely presented. This is important because in order for them to truly engage with your property, they need time to imagine themselves living there.
Great presentation also means better photos. This is crucial because buyers will decide whether to inspect your property based on how good your home looks in the advertising.
Hiring a stylist is optional but we’ve seen how their work can contribute to a better price for our clients. They know so many great tricks and consider size, scale and colour for every room. If your property has several negatives that we need to overcome, a stylist can help us do that.
Please understand our styling and presentation recommendations do not represent any criticism of your personal taste. They are purely based on what will appeal to your likely buyer demographic.
15 tips to enhance presentation
- Declutter as much as possible. Too much furniture can make a room feel very small and lots of ornaments can be distracting to buyers
- New paint and carpet can transform a tired property into a fresh, new-look home. Alternatively, consider steam cleaning the carpets and washing painted walls with sugar soap to brighten them up
- Go room by room looking for small repairs, such as cracked tiles, peeling or chipped paint, carpet stains, broken blind chains, torn flyscreens and windows or sliding doors that stick
- Cleanliness is crucial. Buyers won’t stay in messy or dirty homes, so scrub every nook and cranny! Pay particular attention to bathrooms and the kitchen
- Cleaning the windows will make a significant difference, with more natural light immediately flooding in
- Consider professional styling. This might involve moving some furniture into storage, hiring some modern pieces and adding rugs and cushions for colour and cosiness. Your stylist will do all of this for you!
- Consider updating old lighting fixtures to immediately jazz up an uninspiring room
- Consider small modern updates, such as replacing old handles on doors and kitchen cabinets with sleeker styles; doing the same with tapware and showerheads; and replacing white power point and switch covers with stainless steel covers (available at hardware stores)
- Mow the lawns, weed the garden beds, prune the bushes, remove unattractive plants, invest in mulch and add a few evergreen flowering shrubs to achieve inexpensive ‘wow factor’
- Clear the gutters and consider a house and roof wash. A high pressure hose can easily remove caked-on dirt and grim from tiles, bricks and paint. You’ll be amazed at the results!
- If your roof eaves are stained, paint them. Stained eaves can make buyers worry that the roof is leaking. Also consider re-painting the gutters and fascia boards if they are faded
- Wash outdoor furniture and pressure clean balcony tiles, pavers and decking. Consider a new coat of timber varnish on decking, which can be easily applied with a small roller brush
- If you have animals, take them out of the house for opens. Remove food bowls and kitty litter and deodorise all rooms. Bad smells can be very off-putting to buyers
- If you have personal framed photos on display, pick the best ones and leave them in place. They can help create a happy, homey ambience for buyers
- Fresh flowers always look great – place them on the dining table or kitchen bench
To connect with the DiJones Upper North Shore real estate team click here.
