When you are looking to upsize, every penny counts. You have probably been saving hard, investigated the costs of estate agents and solicitors and researched the best mortgage deal. What you may not have considered is maximising the selling price of your current home. Your home is the asset you are selling so it makes sense to get the best possible price. After all, an extra £5,000 or £10,000 could enable you to buy the dream house you’ve just found. One analogy I often use when talking to clients is that of selling your car. If we are selling the car, we usually wash it, vacuum the interior or even have it professionally valeted – why? We do it because we expect to get a little bit more on the trade in value. The same principal applies when selling your home only more so. What you are aiming to do is maximise the space, give each room a purpose and create the right “feel”.
Space
We all value space no matter how large or small our homes are. When I’ve conducted house viewings I’ve very often heard comments such as “it feels cramped” “We couldn’t fit our furniture in here” or “I want something light and airy”. These are all indications that space is an important factor to house hunters. You need ensure rooms are presented to show the true space available i.e. not crammed full of furniture or cluttered.
Purpose
It is very easy to assume that buyers can visualise what a room can be used for. For, example, if you are using a bedroom as an office or junk room then it may seem obvious that it functions as a bedroom and the room dimensions may be on the property’s listing (beware, not all buyers bother looking at the dimensions). The issue when buyers view is that they struggle to picture precisely what space the bed will take up and whether they can fit storage in. This is the reason why I always take a tape measure and why you often see Kirstie Allsopp lying on the floor flapping her arms up and down as if she is making Angel Wings. So if you selling it as a bedroom furnish it with a bed and bedroom furniture. In reception spaces that are being used for more than one activity then try to minimise the number of functions and zone the areas so it is easy for buyers to see exactly what the space is being used for. This may sound like you are spoon feeding buyers but what you are doing is making it easier for them to imagine themselves living in your property.
Feel
How often do buyers talk about the “feel” of a property when they are viewing? A house might tick all the boxes but they don’t go for it because despite that it doesn’t grab them. There is a balance between head and heart and very often it’s the heart that wins. So when you are selling you want buyers to walk through the door and just know that it’s the one. It’s those little touches that will make the connection and that’s why presentation matters.
So a quick reminder – if you want to maximise your budget and be able to afford to take that next step up the ladder then your home needs to have a sense of space, every room (or area in a room) needs a purpose and the home needs to touch the buyers. If you are selling then I have a free E Book with my 10 Top Tips so visit my home page, click on the link and down load today. For any further information call 07745 876182 or e mail info@homestyle4u.com. I cover Wirral, Cheshire and the North West.
