Top tips for presenting your house ready for viewings

1: Drive By Appeal
Normally buyers will do a drive by or walk by to suss out your property before asking to view. This is to see if the location and look of the house will be right for them. You want to make sure their first image is memorable. Remove any clutter from the outside area such as toys or left over building materials. Try and make sure the guttering is all cleaned and attached (This is one of the most common comments viewers bring up). Cut the grass, trim the hedges, remove any weeds and clear the pathways. Consider painting the front of the property/ windows/ doors. Make them want to come in and look around!

2: Living Areas
Clutter. The one thing we all manage to collect and have over our properties. Before each viewing, we would recommend to put items back in their correct place/ remove any clutter as this will help to show your property in the best light. Instantly the human eye is drawn to items which are out of place and will take away the main focus points of your property. If you have toys/ items on the floor viewers get drawn to them first rather than the beautiful windows you may have or the feature fireplace. Clutter can also make the room feel smaller than what it actually is. By cleaning up a little bit, it will allow the viewer to see the rooms more clearly.

3: Kitchen
The heart of the house. Majority of home owners spend a considerable amount of time in the kitchen as this is where we entertain, eat, and cook. One of the main factors in a property for viewers is the kitchen. So by making sure you have clean worktops, appliances put away, cupboard doors fixed and working (as they will open them to check they work) it will help viewers imagine themselves in this kitchen. It sounds cliché however, if you have time to bake some bread or cakes before a viewing and place them on the side this can really help welcome people in, or even just the time to brew some coffee.. These aromas are some of the nation’s favourite smells and instantly associate this to their home.

4: Decoration
These are the jobs we always say we will do, and somehow they always slip our minds. It may be the small hole which needs to be filled in the hallway or the scuff lines along the wall which need to be painted over. All these little jobs do get picked up on, so it’s best to carry out these works beforehand. Viewers will always try and find some little points around the house which they will need to do when they move in and they will cost this up in their head (sometimes more than what it actually is) and will base this in their offer. By making sure your property is presented well, it makes viewers feel like they can move in instantly without doing any decorating
(which a lot of buyers don’t want to do) and will give you the best possible chance of getting an offer close to the guide price.

5: Pets
Pets are part of the family and we all know how much you can adore them. However, for some people this may not be the case. For viewings it’s recommend that pets aren’t in the property. If you can’t take your pets with you, try and leave them with a neighbour so that on a viewing they don’t distract or sometimes scare the potential buyers as you don’t want them to be thinking about the pet rather than the house. If you have cages, try and remove them so it doesn’t take up valuable space that the buyers want to see.  Remove any food bowls so the smell of the food isn’t their first Aroma of that room. As you live with them you may not notice these things however for some individuals it can leave a lasting image with the buyers.