Preparing Your Home For Sale

Is yours one of these families who makes a special effort once a week to go right through the house cleaning and tidying it? Maybe you are someone who can afford a cleaner who does this for you. Either way, doesn't it look fantastic once it's done?

If you want to sell a car, it is essential to restore it as close to its new condition as possible. You clean it, polish it, put on new tyres if they are in bad condition, steam clean the engine, repair any torn upholstery, put new mats on the floor and you'll get considerably more for it. More importantly, the car will sell whereas if you left it as it is on a day to day basis, you are likely to put the buyer off. The cost to do that would have been less than $100 and a little of your time.

It is the same with your home. You have to try to restore it as close as possible to its new condition.

You can lose at least 10% off your price if you don't prepare and present your home at its best. For example if you have an average priced home which could get a top dollar of $150,000 and you present if poorly, you could realize as little as $135,000 or even less. That is $15,000 on an average home and most homes only require an investment of $1,000 tops, plus some of your time. What is more, poorly presented homes not only fetch bargain prices, they also take a long time to sell.

Owners of badly presented homes don't take poor presentation into account when they make price comparisons with other homes. They will say "Mine is a four bedroom, two bathroom too, so it should fetch the same." Consequently, they have an expectation the same as their neighbour who may be overpriced but still beautifully prepared.

In all probability, a fabulous home preparation will cost no more than $500 and can be completed in the few weekends before putting your home on the market. You would be wise to do this before you call us in as we would then be better able to judge the potential of your home. Irrespective of experience, all people tend to judge by what they see. Don't think for a moment you can risk leaving it to the imagination of the buyers. It is vital you create a good first impression throughout the inspection. Don't give them even one reason to knock your price down, or worse, walk away.

Under no circumstances should you be putting major investments into your property. This is not the time to add the extra room or put in a pool. If there is future potential, let the buyers judge that for themselves as they all have different requirements. They may want the three bedrooms and one bathroom just as it is. The person who wants to add the extra bedroom with en-suite can do so later.

Split your home preparation into two segments. Segment one is all the things you must do to the home to bring it up to speed. Segment two contains all the jobs you must do each time you have an inspection, especially the Open. Pay particular attention to kitchens and bathrooms as they have the greatest influence on the buyer, especially the women.