Selling your home can be a time-consuming task, especially if you have never done it before. But don’t worry, we have some tips to make your home more sellable.
With no first-hand experience, it can be difficult to know where to start and very easy to make mistakes that cost you both time and money.
Selling a house is a stressful experience anyway, but if you have viewing after viewing and no offer, it can make it even worse.
So, to help make things easier, we have put together a list of ten fool-proof ways you can make your home more sellable.
1. Carry Out Easy Upgrades
Nobody wants to buy a house that looks like a mess – no matter how much vision they have for the property.
To make your house as desirable to potential buyers as possible, you will likely need to carry out some upgrades.
But don’t worry, these don’t always have to be expensive – often, a few small changes can make all the difference.
Redecorating is one of the most popular and affordable ways to freshen up your home’s interior. Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh lick of paint and some general maintenance to brighten the place up.
Neutral paint colours always make houses look clean and bright. And make sure that you choose neutral colours, because research has shown that houses painted with those sell faster. (Lane et al., 2015)
Replacing broken light bulbs and fixing any leaky taps can go the extra mile towards completing a sale.
Before we have sold any of our homes we’ve always made a point of doing this. We’ve done everything from simply returning a home office back to looking like a bedroom through to redecorating rooms, freshening up bathroom grouting, and painting ageing kitchen tiles.
Anything we could do to improve the appeal of our home without spending a fortune, and we were on it!
2. Deep Clean The Inside And Outside Of Your House
You want any potential buyer to see themselves living in your house. This is much easier to achieve if your property is spotless inside and out.
Before we put any of our homes on the market we had a proper deep clean, including behind appliances, sofas and beds. While it’s a lot of work, it will ensure that buyers won’t see anything they don’t like, such as a layer of dust under the sofa.
You also want your home looking its best from the outside, as it will increase kerb appeal. Even if your house isn’t the best looking, if everything is tidy and clean, it will make a better impression than a run-down picture-perfect cottage.
We make sure we get the pressure washer out before our house goes on the market and give paths, patios and driveways a good clean. Hard work but will make your home more sellable.
Ideally, you want to do that before photos are taken, so that your house makes a good first impression as soon as a potential buyer looks at the listing.
3. Declutter And Depersonalise
Another thing you should ideally do before the estate agent comes to take pictures is to declutter and depersonalise your home.
A buyer looks for a home, so make it easy for them to see your house as their next home. While your photos and souvenirs make the house your home, they won’t make it theirs.
If they see you, your friends and family everywhere they turn, they will feel more like visitors, rather than the future owners of the house. This means they will be less likely to make you an offer.
You want to remove your personality from the house. This also includes ornaments, some furniture, and general clutter. It’s worth remembering that a room with lots of stuff in will look smaller. Reserach suggests that removing
Whenever we decided to put one of our homes on the market, we did a declutter. It’s amazing how much we accumulate over the years. And many of it we don’t even need.
Anything we do still need and want, we either put in cupboards or in boxes. If you have a garage, then you can store some boxes there, as long as it won’t fill it up.
We found that this is one of the best tips we can give you to make your home more sellable, because it allows buyers to see themselves living in your house.
4. Consider Updating The Bathroom
29% of homes sold in 2019 had a new bathroom fitted, so it’s worth considering investing in an upgrade.
Bathrooms are often the let-down of properties up for sale – from mouldy grout between the tiles to dripping taps and dirty glass screens.
A study looking at what guests in a hotel value the most showed that the bathroom was the most important room. And if that’s the case for a hotel you stay in for a few nights, it will be no different if you buy a home. (Lockyer 2003)
The last thing prospective buyers want to see is a bathroom that requires a lot of work. So, a full update is the way to go if your bathroom you’re looking to sell your property for a higher value.
If you have a bathroom that’s relatively new but starting to look tired, replacing the silicone sealant and whitening the grouting can make a big difference. This is what we did to the bathroom in our old house, and it made it look much fresher and newer.
5. Tidy Up The Garden
Since the 2020 Coronavirus lockdowns and restricted outdoor time, gardens have become more popular than ever.
Having an attractive, tidy outdoor space that is well-designed can really increase your chance of selling quickly. So, if you have a garden that’s in a bit of a mess, it’s time to get to work.
The garden should feel like an extension of the home – a space where people can entertain and relax in – and are extremely appealing to potential buyers, but only if they don’t require a huge amount of work. Therefore, dedicate some time to trimming back hedges, clearing pathways, and mowing the lawn.
When we sold our last house we had a few jobs in the garden we simply hadn’t got around to. However, as it was a couple of days work, and we were busy decluttering the house and preparing the inside for sale, we hired a local gardener to do it for us.
While that’s only an option if you can afford it, we found getting an expert in was by far the best option for us and really helped make the garden look nicer.
6. Make A Great First Impression
First impressions count, and if they are good, will make your home more sellable. It starts from the moment they arrive. For example, a freshly painted front door can make a big difference.
Most people know if they want to buy a house within seconds of stepping over the threshold. So, it is essential you spend time making the front of your home look appealing.
Maybe place some flower pots next to your door to welcome potential buyers with some colour and a lovely scent. It continues inside, where everything should be perfect, so it’s important to make sure everything looks tidy.
When it comes to successfully making a sale, the importance of a clean, tidy home cannot be underestimated.
7. Conduct Your Own Viewings
It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when wondering how to make your home more sellable. But think about it: who is the best person to sell your home? It’s you.
You don’t just know what features your house has, as does an estate agent, you know what it’s like to live in it. And that’s what a buyer wants to know.
They can see that the living room has a feature fireplace or that all windows are double-glazed. But what they won’t see is how cosy the family room is with the fire on. Or how relaxing it is to sit in your garden with a glass of wine on a summer’s evening.
You will also know more about the area and the amenities, which is another reason you should conduct your own viewings. Don’t believe us that you can sell your house better than any estate agent?
When we sold our first home, the agent did some viewings, and we did some, because they were outside of normal office hours. We did probably about half of the viewings ourselves.
And what we found was that all the people we showed around either asked for a second viewing or made an offer. None of the buyers that saw the house with the agents showed any further interest.
We ended up selling our house within a few days for the asking price. This experience convinced us to always do our own viewings, because we can sell our house better than anyone else.
8. Keep Your House Clean And Tidy
To make your home more sellable, you have to keep it spotless. It’s hard work, don’t get me wrong, but it’s worth it. After all, nobody wants to buy a dirty house, right?
We are meticulous when our house is on the market. Everything has to be perfect, because we know that this will make our house stand out from the crowd and people will feel comfortable.
And that’s the first step. When they feel comfortable, they are more likely to get the feeling and envisage themselves living there.
If you hate cleaning, consider getting a cleaner for the time your house is on the market. We never opted for that because I’m a Yorkshireman, if you know what I mean. But it’s certainly an option if you are willing to spend the money.
We always got rewarded for our hard work by potential buyers pointing out how clean and tidy our house was. This showed that it was not the norm and meant we stood out.
That’s what you want, because it means when they think about all the houses they saw, they will remember yours. And for the right reasons.
9. Offer Buyers Reassurance
Your situation as a seller can be an attractive pull for potential buyers who are keen to avoid long chains. And being an attractive seller will make your home more sellable.
If, for instance, you already have a property lined up, or you are considering moving into rented accommodation to help push the sale through, this could reassure the buyer, letting them know you are serious about selling.
In fact, many buyers often seek reassurance from their sellers. By being able to tell them how far along the process you are, this can make a big difference to a property’s selling factor.
When we last moved we learned how important this is. We were confident we would find a home to move to quickly as we had a large search area, so while we looked online, we didn’t view any properties in person until we had an acceptable offer on our home. We didn’t want to fall in love with a property we couldn’t proceed on.
However, while this was logical to us, several people who viewed our properties found our position a little concerning, in case we weren’t serious about moving. So we learned to start emphasising how eager we were to start viewing properties in-person and how we’d seen some really strong contenders online.
This worked for us as soon after we started doing this we got an acceptable offer.
Selling A Property? FREE Step-By-Step Platform
- Bite-sized steps for buying and/or selling a property in the UK
- Easy-to-follow explanations every step of the way
- Clear actions to follow to progress your property transaction
- Trackable progress so you know what to do next
- Detailed informative articles related to every step you follow
10. Offer A Unique Selling Point
There are numerous unique selling points that can attract buyers to a property, and one of these is smart home technology.
Homes that are catered towards being more energy efficient are becoming increasingly important to buyers.
So, advertising the presence of fibre optic cables or smart technology could not only add to the sales price but also increase buyer interest.
Unique selling points like these will put you ahead of the competition and attract more buyers than your property would have done otherwise.
We found that by talking to your buyers before you show them around you can find out what they are after. This meant that we could focus on these things during the house tour.
For example, if someone was moving because they wanted a bigger garden, we would make sure to tell them how much our friends’ kids loved running around in it. And how much fun BBQ with friends and family are because there are so many places to spread out.
Final Thoughts…
Selling your home can be a time-consuming and emotionally draining process. But, with the tips listed above, you can give yourself the best possible chance of success, finding a buyer much more quickly than you might have done otherwise.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard work to make your home more sellable, but it will be worth it in the end. You will sell your home quicker and for a better price.
And the faster your home sells, the sooner you can start focussing on moving to your new dream home.
