If you are downsizing this could be for any number of reasons, for example, the children have left home and you no longer need such a large property, you no longer want the expense or hassle of maintaining the property or perhaps the garden is too large. One consequence of children flying the nest is that you have bedrooms that you no longer use or that you have converted to a different use such as a home office, a hobby room or maybe even just a junk room. Why is this a problem? The difficulty is that viewers struggle to visualise how a space will look. It may seem easy to tell potential buyers that a room that is currently used for a hobby will be emptied and will be perfectly usable as a bedroom. It may be that the room dimensions are on the estate agent’s particulars so that buyers know the room sizes. However, some people aren’t able to translate room sizes into actual spaces so you need to do it for them. So here are my top three tips for making each room work when it has been repurposed.
What is the Room’s Function?
What is the room meant to be? This may be easy because you are probably going to turn it back into what it was before. Nonetheless, it may be worth taking a moment just to think, particularly if you have lived in your home for a long time. The way we live our lives has undoubtedly changed over the years – just think about the fashion for kitchen/diner/family room instead of kitchen and separate dining room and living room. Consider your target market, who is likely to buy your home and what are they going to want in the property they are buying? One word of caution here. If a room is intended to be used as a bedroom then reinstate it as a bedroom. The number of bedrooms tends to be a key criteria in people’s search and will be used as one of their filters when looking online. It also tends to be a determining factor when it comes to price.
What Should The Room Contain?
A room doesn’t need to be fully furnished, the less cluttered the better. What it needs to contain are the key elements for that particular type of room? A bedroom needs a bed of the appropriate size (a double if it is a double bedroom, if you have a super king size and it takes up the whole room swap it for a king size or even standard double) storage and a side table or bedside shelf. Storage doesn’t necessarily have to be a traditional wardrobe, it could be a hanging rail or fabric covered metal framed wardrobe can suffice as long as it demonstrates that there is space for storage and where it would go. If you are presenting a dining room it needs to contain a dining table and chairs and a sideboard or console table. A study should have a desk, chair and storage and/ or shelving. If you have got rid of the original furniture from the room and won’t need it at your next property then borrow, use online sites such as freecycle or many charities now have furniture outlets.
Dressing the Room
Finally, the room needs to have the right ambience so you need to dress it using accessories such as lamps, cushions, throws etc. For a dining room, I am not a particular fan of an overly laid table – it can look overdone – but a couple of place settings with a few pieces of attractive crockery and glassware will set the scene. A study should have a few files and a desk set etc.
In summary, each room needs a function, it needs to contain the key items of furniture and be dressed to engender the desire to buy in your viewers. Let me do this for you. Call now on 07745 876182 to book an appointment or for more information e mail Judith@homestyle4u.com. I cover the Wirral, Cheshire and the North West.
