8 Easy Ways to Prepare Your Property for a Viewing

We all know the steps needed to sell a property. You spend valuable time and money researching the best estate agents, looking at where to list your property and taking photos of your house. Yet many of us fall at the final hurdle: the dreaded house viewing. A buyer can fall in love with a house at first sight, but it’s very easy to get this step wrong. We’ve put together these 8 easy tips to make sure their first impression is a good one!

1. Books are judged by their covers

Although it may sound cliché, first impressions do count when it comes to property viewings. Potential buyers will often drive by a house to get a feel for the area and to judge the exterior of your property. To ensure they are encouraged to go inside, be sure to tidy the outside! This means mowing the lawn, giving the door that lick of paint it has been craving for ages, fixing that broken fence and oiling the creaky gate. A great exterior will put the buyer in a positive mind-frame before they have even stepped foot in your building.

2. Make the house a blank canvas

When a potential buyer looks around a property, they imagine the life they can make for themselves in the house. What they don’t want to see is the happy life that the seller has already made for themselves in the same building. To avoid this, you must depersonalise your house by removing family photographs, posters, memorabilia and souvenirs. Whilst there is no need to completely gut the house and leave the walls completely bare, that lovely couple photo from Mallorca 2014 should ideally be put into storage!

3. Lighten up

Lighting can make a world of difference in a house, changing it from an unwelcoming building into a bright home. There are a multitude of ways to brighten up your house depending on when the viewing is. If people are coming to view your home in the morning or the middle of the day, then open all the curtains to let natural light flood in. If the viewing is in late afternoon or night time, then turn on all the outside and inside lights to create an inviting feeling. Another way of brightening up your house is to buy higher wattage LED bulbs (available as cheaply as £1), or else bring in spare lamps you might have kicking around in the garage or attic. But be warned! If you do bring in old lamps, make sure they fit with the aesthetic of the room and don’t look out of place.

4. Cleanliness is next to godliness

Spending a good few hours giving the property a full spring clean can make a world of difference. Whilst you can clean every inch of your property should you wish, we’ve compiled a list of the main points you should focus on whilst getting your clean on:

• Vacuum fully
• Clean taps and sinks
• Clean work surfaces
• Disinfect and deodorise the fridge
• Dust fully and polish surfaces
• Clean the skirting boards

And why not declutter your property? You can move belongings into storage even make some extra money by selling them on eBay, Gumtree or at a car-boot sale!

5. The Secret Life of Pets

Although Fido may have been a part of the family for years, he isn’t a part of the future a potential buyer is looking to build! To avoid annoying (or even scaring!) a buyer, give all pets to a family member or neighbour to look after during a viewing.

6. In the Air Tonight

The smell of a house can entice or put off buyers, so ensure your house smells fresh! This can only be achieved by opening all the windows; not just with a spray of Febreze. Airing your house is especially important if you have pets or are a smoker because these smells are more likely to be persistent.

7. ‘Tis the Season

When the weather changes, so should your tactics for preparing your property. Remember that a house viewing in summer is vastly different to a winter viewing. In the summer months, you should make the house as bright as possible – open windows to let warm air in and make the garden look as nice as possible. In winter, you can bring out blankets to make the house look cosy, light a fire if you have the means to do so and maybe even put up some (small) Christmas decorations to give the house a festive feel! These changes don’t need to be big, but they will alter the feel of a house completely and show that you’re taking good care of your home.

8. Give your viewers some space

The estate agent is the professional, so let them do their job! Unless you feel you can add something to the conversation, the buyer is best left in the capable hands of your estate agent. There is no need to spend your day looking around your own house, so go out and meet up with friends or go for a coffee whilst they look around. Why waste your day when you are paying someone to do it for you?

Are you thinking of selling your home? Contact us today for our expert advice!