Neutralise, sterilise, revitalise

While you may love your hot pink bedroom walls and bright green in the lounge, bright wall colours tend to turn potential buyers off.

 

If you can a quick paint to neutralize the colour will make your home easier to sell.  Easy on the eye earth tones always work best. Go check some local developers show homes to get some inspiration.

 

Remove any paintings or posters that may offend - the first place to start is the teenagers bedroom!

 

 

If you have carpets – shampoo them now and keep the family pets off them. Make sure everyone takes their shoes off before coming into the house.  If the carpet is ‘grotty’ consider removing it.

 

Put away all scatter rugs as they clutter the space, view and feel of a room.

 

If there are any odours in the house deal with them now. The problem with odours is we get used to them, and can’t tell.  So time to ask your best friends for their honest opinion on this. Can you smell that a dog lives in the house from the minute the front door is opened. If so – deal with it immediately so it doesn’t put your potential buyers off.

 

During showings make sure the house smells good. Turn on the bread maker (borrow one if you have to), or put on a slow roast to ensure your home smells delicious during open time. Get rid of the cat litter box (nothing like the smell of cat poop to scare people out of the house double-quick). Speaking of poo, make sure the toilet is clean, and pick up the dog poop off the lawn. Finally, have someone take Fido out for a walk while you have viewers in.

 

 

Time to remove the junk.  Consider storing all your unneeded things and boxed up belongings off site.  Rent a storage unit or a garage for a couple of months. This is a great way of presenting the entire property at its best and spacious self, and come moving day your half done!

 

If its sunny out, open some windows and let the breeze in, maximize the sunshine by pulling curtains back (clean and fresh of course). If its cold – keep a heater on low so the house is warmed before open homes. If privacy is not an issue, get rid of curtains or other window coverings that are not needed and let the light in.