Our home reflects our personality – the way we decorate, the furniture we buy, the accessories we add. This is a good thing, after all it would be very boring if every property was exactly the same. The essence of interior design is all about you.
However, when you are selling, it’s the opposite. You want your buyers to be able to imagine themselves living in your property, making it their home. Your personality as reflected in the your home may be getting in the way of that sale without you being aware of it. An added difficulty is that because it is your personality, potential buyers may not actually feedback that that is what is putting them off because, on the whole, we are polite and we don’t like to give offence. This means that viewers may give some other reason why the property isn’t right for them.
So exactly why can personality sabotage a potential sale?
Decor
We all have our preference for the way a property is decorated whether we like a lot of colour or we prefer neutrals. It is very easy to assume that potential buyers will see past a colour scheme and realise they can change it. However, some people struggle to visualise and others simply don’t want to be bothered doing a lot of decorating. Our advice is that the major aspects of decor such as walls and flooring should be neutral. Add colour with a feature wall painted a different colour or wallpapered or with accessories such as rugs, throws and artwork.
Personal items
We all like to have things in our homes that remind us of people or events. It could be items we have brought back from a holiday or family photos or portraits. Too many personal possessions can give off a very strong statement of ownership and potential buyers can struggle to imagine themselves living in the property because the property reflects the current owner so much. We recommend removing family photos and portraits and replacing them with images that are more general such as landscapes or foliage.
If you are struggling to sell and want advice on presenting your home for sale the call me on 07745 876182 or e mail me at judith@homestyle4u.com. I cover the Wirral, Cheshire and the North West