When you make the decision to move to a new home, it can be easy to focus your attention on your new home and neglect your current one. If your home has been on the market for some time without so much as an offer, it may be time to take some action to help move things along. There could be a whole host of reasons, some of which you can influence and some which you can’t do much about. However, let’s focus on what you can do something about!
To improve the appeal of your home to potential buyers, you may think you need to invest vast amounts of time and indeed money in the home you are planning on leaving behind. However, there are quite a few simple changes you can make that don’t cost a fortune and could really make a difference.
One thing to do before you begin making any changes, is to consider your potential buyers. Who are they? Who is the most likely audience to buy your home – families, elderly, singles, couples? This will help guide the changes you make.
Curb Appeal
Is the front of your home letting you down? Bearing in mind, first impressions count you may want to consider investing in improving the aesthetics of the front of your home. From small changes like, weeding and using colourful planters to painting or replacing the front doors of your property.
De-Clutter
When we have lots of ‘stuff’ in a room, particularly a small room, it can be difficult to see the potential in the space. Even if you are using a spare room as your ‘junk’ room, you are likely to get more interest if you show potential buyers the possibilities of the spare room – for example as an office or spare bedroom etc. Therefore, put any clutter out of sight and kit the room out to demonstrate its potential with a few pieces of simple furniture.
Revamp
The kitchen is often the heart of a home. Therefore, expect your potential buyers to judge this element of your home harshly! Thankfully, you won’t need to fork out for an entirely new kitchen to meet the approval of your potential buyers! Simply replacing the cupboard fronts can be enough to completely change the look and style for the better. The most affordable way can be to use MDF cut to size.
Light Optimisation
If your home has fairly dark and dingy areas and perhaps some of the rooms are not the best size, you may benefit from making a few changes to increase the light. In doing so, you can quickly turn a small, unattractive room into one that is more sort after. To optimise the light in these rooms, use lamps, place large mirrors directly opposite windows and choose light tones for the walls and furnishings. Even just doing one of these things could completely transform the room.
Utilise Props
Evoking a feeling or emotion with potential buyers could be the thing that sells your house. With your ideal audience in mind, kit out your house to show its potential – for example, if it’s families, create a play space for kids or put a swing set in the garden and put up family portraits etc. Basically, anything which will demonstrate to the potential buyer ‘how’ they might use the space for their own family and give them a real sense of family feel about the space.