Preparing to Sell

Before you open your home up to potential buyers, you need to consider both the presentation of your home and how you would like to present your property through marketing material. Buyers don’t always get past the initial look, and might not take the time to see the true potential of your property. 

Preparing Your Home For Sale

Here’s a list of some of the areas buyers may be looking at when they walk around your home, all of which can be easily fixed:

• Paint work – is it marked, old, or chipping in some areas? Sometimes a lick of fresh paint can make a room look brand new
• Carpet – although more expensive to change outright, if it’s looking dirty or tired consider getting it professionally cleaned.
• Garden and lawns – a poorly maintained garden and overgrown lawns can give an impression of the property being neglected.
• Doors and windows – this might seem trivial, but a lot of people will open most doors throughout the house to see what’s behind them, and even open some windows. Make sure they aren't sticking or damaged in any way.
• General cleanliness, especially through the kitchen and bathrooms, and including animal hair – some buyers will get turned off if they see that a place hasn’t been looked after well as they want to try and picture themselves living there. Before an open home make sure you scrub the bathroom/s and kitchen, take a duster round the living areas and vacuum the floors. You may also want to consider cleaning any windows.
• General clutter – if you have a lot of stuff and it’s cluttering up your house, try to tidy it up or put it away before anyone comes around. By doing this you may help to give a room spacious more spacious feel, and you might be able to highlight storage solutions in your home, which is always beneficial.
• Smells – it seems simple but bad smells can put a buyer off and it might not even relate to your property. Make sure any rubbish is put out and anything that may potentially create a bad smell cleaned up. Even things like avoiding cooking particularly smelly food right before someone views the property can help.

Marketing your property

Whether you sell privately or through an agent, deciding on what kind of advertising and marketing you want to do will can affect the audience you reach and of course the cost.

• Print advertising. Print advertising can come in various forms but some of the more commons ones include Property Press magazine and local papers. However, you have to remember that:
  • It can be expensive depending on your needs, ie how often the ad features and the size of the ad
  • t only captures your immediate, local audience, which is beneficial if you want to target your area but limiting if you want to attract a wider range of buyers
• Online advertising. Online advertising has become more important in today’s real estate space, with sites such as Trade Me Property and Open2view becoming very popular. Online advertising can offer:
  • Cheaper advertising space, although your ad can end up being one of many in a long list
  • A wider audience reach - although this can also mean you end up with a lot of views of your ad but with no real leads, as people are just browsing
• Property signage - Regardless of whether you choose print or online advertising, or both, another common form of marketing is a ‘For Sale’ sign. This is usually positioned out the front of your property. It’s an easy way to let passersby know your house is on the market and it also highlights your house to people trying to find it after seeing it in advertisements elsewhere.

Each option needs to assessed as to the number of potential buyers you can attract through it, and whether they’re the right buyers for your property. The cost also needs to be looked at, but this can be weighed up against whether that method attracted your buyer. More often a combination of different advertising and marketing will be suitable, and if you are using a real estate agent they will advise and help you with this process.