It is unlikely that you will stay in one house your entire life. Once you are on the property market, it doesn’t take long for the value of your home to increase. This makes selling your property and moving to a bigger place a real prospect. However, the first hurdle you need to cross is selling your home.
Home sales are not as volatile as you may think. There are always people waiting to get on the property market themselves, and your house may be just what they are looking for. You will need to make sure that your home is up to code before you put it on the market, though. As such, here is everything you need to consider when you sell your home.
Staging
There are several misconceptions out there about the state your home should be in before you sell. A common theory is that a buyer is more likely to take an interest in a property if the space is empty. Therefore, a lot of sellers move a majority of their furniture into storage or set up in their new place much sooner than is necessary.
In truth, homes actually sell much faster if you continue to live as normal during these viewings. This is called staging, and it is a practice that helps the next buyer picture themselves living in the property. Seeing your furniture in use shows them how their things will function in a similar space. Try to keep your life ticking over as normal during a house sale and you should receive more interest.
Clear The Hallway
First impressions are important, and the entryway into your home is going to provide prospective buyers with a taste of what your property has to offer. While it is important to try and keep your home life normal when showing your home to buyers, you can make an exception for the hallway.
Almost every homeowner neglects the state of their entryway. It is easy to come home from a stressful day at work, kick off your shoes and move on to another part of your house without thinking of the mess you have just made. What’s more, you rarely re-enter this space during your time at home. However, you will need this part of the house to look spotless when you have viewings. Get rid of the pile of shoes, straighten the mat, and remove any post that has piled up over the last few days. Keep your hallway clear to give buyers the best first impression possible.
Wiring
The electrical wiring in your house is another aspect that you won’t pay much heed to during daily life. You should have received information about your wiring when you bought the house, but this would have only included how old they are or whether the wires had recently been replaced. However, re-wiring your home can add some value to your property.
It would be foolish to suggest that you have to replace your wiring to stand a chance at selling your property. In fact, the average cost to rewire a home in the UK is around £2000 for a two bed house and the project adds about £3000 to the total property value. As you can see, that is only a profit of around £1000. What’s more, a re-wring job is extremely disruptive and messy. You need to think about whether that little bit of extra profit is worth it to sell your home. It may intrigue some buyers, but it isn’t a crucial part of the negotiation process.
Plumbing
On a similar note, newer water pipes are likely to be more effective. Old Victorian properties normally contain piping that is over one hundred years old. These pipes are more susceptible to leaks and weather damage, two outcomes that can have a knock-on effect when it comes to selling your home.
Getting old pipes is more significant than replacing your electrical wires. If you are ever unsure about the state of your water pipes, you can check the documents you received when you bought the house or use MyBuilder to find plumbers near you across the UK. By searching for a plumber near me, you can receive an expert opinion about the state of your pipes.
The Outside
Looks are everything when it comes to the property market. It doesn’t matter how much you buff and clean the insides of your home, one small crack in the brickwork or chip in the rendering could put off a buyer for good. This can happen even if this damage is purely cosmetic.
The exterior of your house takes on a lot of wear and tear throughout the year, so it is normal for these little blemishes to appear. Heavy rainfall can cause moss to grow on the bottom layer of brickwork, and bricks do wear away over time. Damage like this poses a concern for potential buyers, but these issues are easy to address with a hard brush or filler. Have a quick sweep of the outsides of your home to check for this type of damage before you put it on the market.
Add A Bedroom
Remember earlier when we mentioned how important staging was when selling your home? Well, there are some sneaky tricks you can pull to stage your home in a way that adds value.
One of these strategies is adding a bedroom. A home extension is expensive, but you do not need to add any additional area to your home to create another bedroom. Any office spaces upstairs or utility spaces can easily be converted to look like a bedroom if needs be. The number of bedrooms in a house can drastically affect its value, so you will benefit from staging an extra bedroom in another part of the house, even if you haven’t been using the room this way.
Repaint
Everyone has their own tastes and preferences when it comes to home décor. As such, you will have painted your home with the colours you enjoy the most. If you are a fashionable individual, then the chances are that the colours will be far from neutral. But what’s wrong with that?
Unfortunately, buyers will struggle to see the home as the empty shell it is and take these vibrant colours into account when they view the property. if you have decorated using a scheme they do not like, they will find it harder to picture themselves living in your home. Therefore, you will need to repaint to sell your home. Neutral colours like whites and greys provide a blank canvas for the next owner to work with. This means that you may need to remove some of your favourite decorative items for the time being. At least they will suit your next property.
Conclusion
Your ability to successfully sell your home depends on several factors. The property market and local area can have a huge impact on your ability to attract a suitable buyer; however, you cannot control these elements. You can control the items listed above, so make sure you address these points next time you think about selling your house. The property market is a fickle business, so take back some control using this advice.
