Presenting Your Property
We are often asked for tips on presenting a house for sale and I thought it might be both helpful and amusing to rehearse some of them.
One rather trite but very true and relevant saying is that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression “. Curb appeal is the somewhat clumsy way of describing what a house looks like from the roadside and that is the first impression the prospective buyer has of the property so it is important to make that impression as good as possible.
Front hedges should all be cut neatly, the front gate should be smartly painted, the front door should also gleam and the brasses on the door should be well polished. Windows should sparkle and the house name or number should be clearly visible. If there is a Sale Board outside ensure that it doesn’t look as though it has been there for ages (even though it may have been!).
Try to think about your house through the eyes of a prospective buyer and try to imagine how it will look to them. We often read that houses should be aggressively de-cluttered and I think that is correct but I do not think it should be taken to extremes. A house that is too bare and minimalist does not look lived in and is not “a home”. There is a happy medium and, of course, everyone has different tastes and what suits one may not suit another. The definition of good taste is very difficult and all of us often think that someone has good taste if theirs agrees with ours!
Too much clutter makes the property look smaller and you would be amazed how some people leave their houses. It is almost like an obstacle course and that cannot be good. To make people feel relaxed and at home it has always been said that the smell of newly baked bread and freshly brewed coffee are conducive but I am told that a few drops of vanilla essence on a warm baking tray smells like newly baked bread. Perhaps this is where the mind games go too far!
Obviously those little jobs which have been left for another day should be fixed. Taps which drip, bulbs which need replacing, bits of painting which need attention and cracked panes of glass do not give the impression of a house that has been cared for and if the viewer sees patent defects they will worry about what latent defects there may be.
It is always a problem how to show a house that is rather dark. Does one put the lights on and make the viewer wonder if it is dark or leave the lights off and prove that it is? I always go for having the lights on. The order of showing the rooms is important. I always believe in showing the best first so that a good impression is established rather than having to overcome a bad impression gained from seeing the worst first and then to end the viewing back in the best room to reinforce the good impression.
We can all remember only a few years ago when there was a queue of potential buyers for every house. That is now but a memory so it is important to make the most of what you have to sell and maximise its appeal.
By David Berriman
One rather trite but very true and relevant saying is that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression “. Curb appeal is the somewhat clumsy way of describing what a house looks like from the roadside and that is the first impression the prospective buyer has of the property so it is important to make that impression as good as possible.
Front hedges should all be cut neatly, the front gate should be smartly painted, the front door should also gleam and the brasses on the door should be well polished. Windows should sparkle and the house name or number should be clearly visible. If there is a Sale Board outside ensure that it doesn’t look as though it has been there for ages (even though it may have been!).
Try to think about your house through the eyes of a prospective buyer and try to imagine how it will look to them. We often read that houses should be aggressively de-cluttered and I think that is correct but I do not think it should be taken to extremes. A house that is too bare and minimalist does not look lived in and is not “a home”. There is a happy medium and, of course, everyone has different tastes and what suits one may not suit another. The definition of good taste is very difficult and all of us often think that someone has good taste if theirs agrees with ours!
Too much clutter makes the property look smaller and you would be amazed how some people leave their houses. It is almost like an obstacle course and that cannot be good. To make people feel relaxed and at home it has always been said that the smell of newly baked bread and freshly brewed coffee are conducive but I am told that a few drops of vanilla essence on a warm baking tray smells like newly baked bread. Perhaps this is where the mind games go too far!
Obviously those little jobs which have been left for another day should be fixed. Taps which drip, bulbs which need replacing, bits of painting which need attention and cracked panes of glass do not give the impression of a house that has been cared for and if the viewer sees patent defects they will worry about what latent defects there may be.
It is always a problem how to show a house that is rather dark. Does one put the lights on and make the viewer wonder if it is dark or leave the lights off and prove that it is? I always go for having the lights on. The order of showing the rooms is important. I always believe in showing the best first so that a good impression is established rather than having to overcome a bad impression gained from seeing the worst first and then to end the viewing back in the best room to reinforce the good impression.
We can all remember only a few years ago when there was a queue of potential buyers for every house. That is now but a memory so it is important to make the most of what you have to sell and maximise its appeal.
By David Berriman