Albany
Emotional Intelligence
Underpinning all considerations for presenting your home is an awareness of how buyers think when they decide to buy a place to live. Buying a home is an emotional decision as well as a practical and financial one. You may have bought the home you are now selling because it ‘felt right’. To decide that a house is right for them, buyers needs to imagine living there.
This is what ‘feeling right’ means - an instinctive recognition that the viewer can see themselves living happily in that house. Nobody can make someone buy a house they don’t like, but it’s scarily easy to prevent someone from recognising its potential.
Clean Logic
Try viewing the sales process as a project formed of logical steps. The first step will cost you nothing but some time and effort, and that is to clean thoroughly, packing away all your precious things and those you will not need until you move house. Packing up possessions can be emotionally hard but it needs to be done. It makes your home easier to sell, and it helps to prepare you for leaving. It may have been a wonderful home to you, but you are moving on now. Reconcile yourself to the idea that your new home is in the future, and for now, this house has become the place you stay in while you find a new home. You may find the work easier by thinking about that higher offer and how your house will be chosen over others on the market.
Say No To Red Flags
On a pragmatic level, viewers do not want to see things that suggest dreary and time-consuming work, unless the house is being sold as a renovation project. Half-finished DIY, holes in plasterwork and polystyrene ceiling tiles, doors that don’t close, broken light switches, sticking locks, dodgy window-catches. Those little things that we have grown used to, and don’t see as a problem, are the red flags that distract buyer’s attention away from the positives of your property. Not only that, they convey an air of neglect causing buyers to wonder what invisible problems also lurk.
As an agent, it can be frustrating to know that a particular buyer is well suited to a specific house, but that he or she cannot see past the minor jobs that need doing.
It’s easier to sell a home that needs a new kitchen and bathroom than one which needs a few broken tiles replacing and a good clean: a new suite is a job for a professional and a tangible improvement to the property, while a minor repair and a bit of bleach is just ‘work’.
Your Clutter Will Cost You Money!
A key skill in successful home-staging is effective de-cluttering. Done well this process creates more space and de-personalises it too. The more impression your lifestyle has made on the house, the harder it is for the viewer to imagine their own life there. If a room is full of furniture, it’s hard to get a sense of its size and its proportions. The same is true if the furniture is too large for the room, or is inappropriate to its use. For example, having a computer table in the dining area detracts from the dining room’s potential to sell your property and suggests the house is too small.
A well presented house will sell quickly so the sooner you resolve to do with less for a while and put edited items into storage, the sooner you’ll be able to unpack them in your new home.
The same is true for all other items and objects – create space and de-personalise. The fewer personal items - family photographs etc, the easier it is for viewers to imagine their own treasures in place. However, don’t do this to the point of utter blandness. Use your belongings to create pools of colour – one accent colour per room that is related to the background neutral colour. It’s important to maintain a sense of welcome and interest.
Identity Crisis
If a room is empty, it also looks smaller than it actually is. This is because the eye is drawn to that which encloses the space – the walls. Buyers find it hard to mentally arrange their own furniture in an empty space so give them some clues with a few pieces, such as a nicely made bed and a dressing table. This will also meet the important need to give each room a functional identity.
Dress each room to show what it’s for. Dining rooms need a dining table. Double bedrooms should have a double bed… or, at least, be arranged to show that one fits easily. It is no longer about how the space worked for your lifestyle… you have to show how these same rooms can work for someone else.
Clever Colour
Consider a little redecoration, especially if the house has a strong colour scheme and personality. New people bring new tastes, and the popularity of magnolia is not because people love the colour, but because it’s a blank canvas for new buyers to colour in as they choose.
Punctuate those neutrals with the accent colours of your decorative items, but in a disciplined way. Think in terms of creating oases of colour that act as focal points in a room, tying together its use and its ambience that draw the viewers’ eye through your home.
Preparing yourself
Remember you are moving on, and for everything that you leave behind there will be a whole new range of possibilities ahead. Although it may be unsettling having strangers coming round to your house, it won’t last for long, and when it’s done you’ll be building a new home for yourself elsewhere. The hassle you are about to go through is a necessary challenge, and will be well worth it for the end results that it will brings. If you are worried, let the agent know that they need to respect your sensibilities. Draw on the strength of those around you, your friends and family, and look ahead to the next stage of your life.
CHECKLIST
marketing your home
Once you have decided to put your home on the market, this rough guide shows the things you should do next.
Preparing the house
• Clean and tidy before your valuation
• Attend to any obvious repair work
• Consider ‘neutral’ redecoration required
• Pack away your personal possessions
• Clean the windows
• Thoroughly clean the kitchen and bathroom
• Make sure all the lights are working
• Sort out the front of the house, including neighbouring gardens if need be!
• Dress each room properly – i.e. for its purpose
Working with the agent
• Clean and tidy again for internal photos
• Tell the agent about any special features
• Decide what you want to include in the sale
• Gather documents relating to the house
• Sort an Energy Performance Certificate
• Get a key cut for the agent
• Clarify viewing arrangements
• Check the agent’s details.
First Published April 2011 By The Dart
