Top Tips for You to sell your home.

Top tips for YOU to sell your own Home

Thank you to “Property Guru”.

Over the years 247 Property Services have helped thousands of tenants and landlords through our multi award winning, affordable, friendly attitude to the lettings industry.  We are now bringing our expertise to assist you, the home owner, in selling your biggest investment, your home.  

• No more middle men,
• No more huge estate agent fees

Well, there is in some cases but someone has to be paid to the do the job or do they?

No they do not!!

You can save your money, but in turn you must put a little effort into making the sale. So, here are our top tips to help you on your way!

1. Great Photographs - Honesty means EVERYTHING.

Taking photographs, and we mean lots of photographs, is always best. With today’s technology you don’t need to be David Bailey to take the perfect shot.  People are sick of wide angle cameras with air brushed images, that’s just a waste of everyone’s time, be honest with the representation of your home. There’s nothing worse than arriving to find the garden and rooms are half the size. Time wasted!

Use the date on the camera, viewers want to see how your home will look like when they arrive, not how it looked five years ago. DON’T mislead people. If you take lots of “honest” photographs then when viewers arrive at your home they already have a true idea of what to expect, no point sprucing up an image for them to be disappointed when they arrive. 

Show them your true home, they would soon see if you had embellished it and it would break the bond of trust immediately if they felt you were misrepresenting your home in any way.

2. Public Awareness – Garden Signs

Place the sign on your property and place it as near as possible to the main gate where all can see it.  If, however, your rear garden has more traffic, then get a further sign put it there but DO NOT lose your front sign. Ensure the sign is kept clean and in good condition. DO NOT allow it to overhang the pavement.

Most agents will agree that a good sign will result in a quick sale, possibly within the first week just from your sign. If someone wants a property in your area, they will see your sign and book viewings instantly regardless of who the estate agent is!  We can supply a 247 Property Services board for £40, delivered and erected, nationwide.

3. Boxes, laundry baskets, and bins.

Some of the best sales and lets are completed by doing the viewings instantly, “Strike while the iron is hot” - a very good way to operate! This means being ready when the call is received… instantly!  This means essential equipment is needed. For example a laundry basket, an empty box or an empty bin kept to hand, your fastest way to clear clutter (so as not to be too embarrassed at short notice).

4. USE your senses

Sight - Clean & Tidy.  Untidy does not mean DIRTY. Show the property is looked after. Don’t have any outstanding DIY jobs lurking around, finish it or don’t start it, finish all those minor repairs.

Sound – Background music - turn off the TV as you want the buyers’ attention.

Traffic - Try and arrange a time when the street is quiet. Its fine to live on a busy street but DON’T allowing viewings during rush hour!

Smell – Ensure all rooms smell clean.  Do not be tempted to use powerful air fresheners as it implies that you have something to hide, a fresh clean scent in kitchens and bathrooms is essential.  (Febreze Air Effects Air Freshener Linen & Sky is the 247 favourite. https://mashable.com/2014/07/19/diy-air-fresheners/ for DIY smell ideas.)

Touch – Any areas that there is a chance of people touching, such as kitchen surfaces, toilet seats, switches, handles, then make sure they are clean and tidy!  There is nothing worse than dust, dirt or grime to a potential buyer.  Someone will “pop to the loo” so ensure it’s clean and fresh. Dettol spray is great.  Remember to keep your bin is empty. Ready for those INSTANT VIEWINGS.

Taste – We are not asking you to lick your windows or doors, don’t worry, but are your windows clean? Are your surfaces clean? Is your UPVC white and clean?  Remember this - you need to take every reason away for a person to say “I don’t like this home”.

FEEL - Make sure the property is warm, NOT TOO HOT and NOT TOO COLD.

5. Remember YOU are the estate agent.

So, you are the estate agent.  You can probably do a better job than them anyway as you will know every nook and cranny and every good  and bad thing about your home and can answer the buyer’s questions instantly, something most estate agents can’t do. Make sure you print some brochures off of your home using our website and have them to hand so buyers may take them away. 

So if you do decide to use a local agent to do the job for you then be aware of this,

• Most agents advertise in the same place as you would be using our online service.
• No agent can tell you how long it will take to sell. How long is a piece of string, don’t let them tell you what you want to hear.
• Any agent that tells you what you want to hear is just selling and not being honest, honesty sells.

Agents that put down other agents are unprofessional. Stay away, Agents should work on their own merit rather than put others down for their own glory.

Fees are individual, if it’s too good to be true then what’s the catch! Dig deeper.

If you choose to move away from your agent watch how the agents say they have further viewing booked, it’s just plain amazing how there have been no viewings for weeks but all of a sudden they have a list of buyers just as you want to cancel!

All and viewings feedback should be shared, ask buyers how their viewing went? Agents start sweating when they are asked to many questions. The good agents have nothing to hide so will share with you.

Memberships are just a guide, look for the public comments, use review sites. Such as “AllAgents” Don’t forget to review the agent afterwards, honestly!

6. LIGHTING – LED bulbs are the new internal sunlight.

Room lighting is an issue, rooms are too dark, have no natural light or have dark dingy corners. So change that, get LED bulbs, they are so much brighter and energy efficient too. Brighten your hallways (less sunlight) with white LED bulbs, use mirrors at the end of corridors, corner lamps, bedside lamps use the lot! Change to LED bulbs and brighten you home. TIP take the photographs after you have spent £100 on LED lighting for your home and you will get far better images.

Think!  Bright - Colour – Clean.

7. Clutter free, less really is more.

Keep it clear of clutter but don’t take away that homely feeling, keep the family pics, but put away the DVDs left on the cabinet after watching them last night. Place lunch dishes in the dishwasher and turn it on, don’t leave it full of dirty dishes. Make sure everything has its place and there is a place for everything. Make sure your cupboards are fully closed and a dish is not holding the door from shutting correctly. Ensure all cupboard tops are clear of clutter, you can guarantee a viewer can see stuff sticking up on top and deduce insufficient storage space!

8. Decorate or Not.

The problem with décor is taste so we would suggest, white, white or even white! Its clean, its fresh, it allows thought without distraction. Dirt can be spotted quickly while you’re selling and cleaned up. You could have feature walls but again taste varies so don’t be too bold. Be neutral, allow your buyer to see past what you have. Remember you are trying to overcome every reason a viewer can become a buyer.

9. Concentrate on the kitchen.

A kitchen is often the most important room in the house. It’s where company seems to gather when you are entertaining. Work on making the kitchen a little more up to date with some minor projects. Upgrade an appliance or two, get new countertops, and paint the cabinets. This can make or break your sale so make sure you focus on this area first. Before we put our house on the market we painted our cabinets and the accent wall, decluttered, and got a new lighting fixture. It made a HUGE difference! 

11. Inspect your home.

It sounds crazy but walk outside and look at your home like a viewer would. A property’s “kerb appeal” is very important. Make sure your home looks inviting, wash the windows, paint the front door, plant some flowers and mow the lawn. A first impression is everything. Don’t turn them off before they even get through the front door. Start across the street and work your way towards the house, look from roof, guttering, windows and work your way down to the drains, then go through the house and look for reasons to why you wouldn’t buy your home. Look for reasons and see how you could take them away. How could you improve your home and you will be surprised how cheaply these little tweaks can be done too! A bit of elbow grease and a big smile might make you thousands. Remember people only haggle if you give them reason to.

12. Clean the carpets.

Have the whole house carpet cleaned.  It could cost you a few hundred pounds but it is worth every penny, most decent carpet cleaners can make carpets look as good as nearly new.  Don’t do it yourself, get the professionals, by the time you paid your fuel, wasted time, and cleaned up the mess from the cleaning you may as well paid the big boys to do the job and its twice as clean.

13. Check your price.

If you want to sell quickly then check your price is competitive, use our helpful valuation tool, https://valuation.247propertyservices.co.uk/sales/

One you have decided on you price stick to your guns, allow couple of thousand if you like the seller and it will clinch but no more than £3000 at the end of the day there is someone out there that will accept your price just maybe not today.

Summary.

Ok, so not all these top tips will apply to every home but you get the idea and some will find them very helpful. There is no perfect way of selling but what we do say is if someone wants your property they will buy it, and in order to sell your home you need to know your product and believe in it. We know this is so true, you bought the house and you know all about your home so you will be able to sell easily.

Make sure you stay polite, use terms that are only positive, do give negatives for anything. Use the terms my home, happy home, family homes etc.

Offer tea or nibbles, no alcohol or stale cake, we think tea/coffee and an almond slice always works to break the ice!

Never put of today what you can do today.

Planning & Preparation Prevent Poor Sales Service Today