Selling your home can be one of the most stressful experiences you can go through and our Team is here to help and support you through the process. We offer a comprehensive range of services covering every aspect of selling your home and our direct approach ensures that your property is exposed to all our prospective purchasers.
Preparing your home for sale
The most important sale you ever make surely deserves a bit of thought and planning and not necessarily a lot of expense. Preparing your home for sale is a popular topic for television programmes and you are often bombarded with advice of what to do and what not to do – most of which is common sense. Remember ‘first impressions’ count for so much. It has been said that a sale is usually made or lost by the time the front door has opened!
As the seller you will need to instruct a home buyers report. This is a legal requirement in Scotland and is prepared for you by a Chartered surveyor. The report consists of 3 parts and includes:
- A Single Survey which is a report prepared by a surveyor on the condition and value of the house.
- An Energy Report (likely to be prepared by the surveyor who has inspected your house) will provide you with an energy efficiency rating of a house together with an Energy Performance Certificate and useful advice to cut fuel bills and increase the home’s energy efficiency
- A Property Questionnaire that contains further information about the house such as alterations that have been made, factoring costs, council tax banding, and is completed by you the seller.
A realistic ‘asking price’ needs to be established – we are here to help and can assist you with this taking into account the valuation given by the surveyor who completed your Home Report. Now you are almost ready!
When you are living in a house day in and day out, it is sometimes difficult to see things objectively or through ‘fresh eyes’ and that’s when it is important to ask your Estate Agent to be honest with you and advise you on what should be done to improve your chances of obtaining the best possible selling price. The general rule is to depersonalise and de-clutter your home so viewers can easily imagine themselves living in it.
Back to those first impressions… is there somewhere for viewers to park their car safely on arrival… is your house clearly numbered or named so they don’t have to work too hard to find your property? And don’t forget that a ‘For Sale’ board will not only help viewers find the property and also alert potential purchasers who may be passing that you are ‘on the market’.
Once inside ensure that your house is light and airy, keep curtains well off windows and make sure that your hall areas are as clear as possible. Your living areas should be made to look as spacious as possible and this may mean removing a chair or two and clearing tabletops and worktops of unnecessary items. The kitchen areas should be immaculately clean and try to avoid any dishes in the sink. A vase of flowers on the dining room table always gives a good impression, as does a strategically placed plant. Beds should be well made and clothes should be tidied away in drawers and wardrobes. The minimalist approach in the bathroom is the best and the toilet seat firmly down. If you are thinking of decorating prior to sale it is advisable to go for light plain colours – ‘magnolia’ always gives a neutral palette for others to work with. Floor coverings are again, best kept plain, but if you do have patterns on your floor coverings it is doubly important to have those plain walls and curtains.
Finally, smile, you may be thinking ‘oh no here we go again’ – make all your viewers feel welcome and appreciated, they may be the ones to make you the offer of a lifetime! Good luck.