If you have decided to put your home on the market, then there are a few things that you need to do to get the property ready and ensure that you can get the best possible price for it. You need to get your home prepped for the listing pictures and the viewings, of course. You don’t necessarily need to spend too much money either; most of the tweaks that you should make can be done on a budget too. Keep reading to learn more.
Increasing Kerb Appeal
Your home’s kerb appeal creates the first impression for your potential buyers. Take stock of your home from the outside, is the front of your home tidy and clean? Are the gutters overflowing? Are the fences and gates in good working order? Try to look at your home from an outside perspective. If the exterior of your home is looking a little grotty and grubby,then this will put potential buyers off.
Decluttering
This can be said for both the inside and the outside of your home. You want potential buyers to be able to imagine themselves living there, and they aren’t going to be able to do this if the place is totally littered with your clutter. You don’t have to get rid of anything; you can store it elsewhere. Just try to strip your home back a little bit, it shouldn’t be totally devoid of personality, but it also shouldn’t be too in your face.
Cleaning
This really ought to go without saying: you need to clean. The house should be deep cleaned, inside and out, in every nook and cranny. First impressions are important. Your home should look, feel and smell clean. Potential buyers are going to be put off by a dirty home. The same should be said for those little niggling issues like a leaky tap or whatever; they should all be fixed before you have people in to view.
Get the Paperwork Together
As soon as your house hits the market, things can move fast. You could get multiple offers in quick succession. This is why you should think about getting a solicitor and getting the paperwork together so you can move forward as soon as you get an offer you want to accept. This will mean looking into conveyancing and any other surveys that you will need to provide to potential buyers.
In some instances, it will be on the buyer to get the surveys done, but there are a few things that you can do to speed the process up, like providing an EPC or using Hexo Electrical Testing to get London’s EICR certificate. You will also need to have your ID, your Title Absolute, FENSA certificates and safety checks carried out on gas appliances if necessary.
In Summary
Ideally, you should already have interest and be fielding offers by the time you find the house that you want to move into; otherwise, there are likely to be delays in the process, which can be tiresome for both sides. To avoid delays on your side, you need to make sure that your house is ready to go on the market and that you have everything in place behind the scenes.
