Presentation... how important is it?
When looking to sell your home, people often ask what they should do in the way of presentation before putting it on the market, and how important is it to have a well presented home?
The simple answer is… VERY important.
We’ve all heard the sayings.. “first impressions are everything..” and “a picture paints a thousand words..” and these sayings are proving to ring true even more now than ever before.
In this age of technology that we now live in, an ever growing number of buyers in the market today are searching for their properties online. And their decisions on which homes to view are being guided by their first impressions, sometimes based purely on the listings they see online.
Sure, a savvy buyer will do further research and scour the newspapers and do drive-by’s on the weekends to see what the property really looks like, without basing their decisions solely on the online ad, but this reinforces the point even more… that presentation is very important.
A small percentage of buyers can see past piles of rubble, overgrown gardens, dirty dishes in the sink, messy interiors, the list goes on. But the majority of buyers are undoubtedly impressed at the sight of neatly trimmed hedges, luscious green lawns, freshly cleaned kitchens and bathrooms, and homes that look like they are on show… because they are on show!
So do we need to go as far as getting an interior designer in to redecorate? Or should we pay for a landscape designer to tell us if we need to cut down some trees or plant some new gardens? How about get a builder in and extend the living area or maybe tile over the dirty concrete patio.
In most cases, these options are probably a little costly and possibly a little extreme.
SO… what’s the answer? First of all, get some advice from your Real Estate Agent.
More often than not, a weekend of cleaning up in and around the house will improve the presentation of your home 100%. Doing things like the following inside:
- Clean scuff marks off your walls and floors
- Give the carpets a good vacuum and in some cases maybe a steam clean
- Keep the floors mopped and make sure there’s no cobwebs on the ceilings
- Clean up the kitchens and bathrooms before every single inspection
- Try… and this could be a tough one… but try to keep the kids rooms clean
- Make sure the beds are made for every inspection
- De-clutter and show off the space that your home has
And then outside:
- Make sure the exterior of the house is nice and clean
- Tidy up the front and back yards, get rid of unwanted mess
- Fertilise the lawn if it looks shabby, and keep it neatly mowed
- Prune any overgrown plants, remove weeds and re-mulch any gardens
Finally ask your agent for any other advice that may improve the presentation of your home. You can bet that they have seen a similar scenario before, and will have a solution for it. For very little expense and some genuine elbow grease, you can improve the saleability of your home, and in most cases, the final price.
