killerhales

Another step on the road, as our first open house will be held this weekend. We've been busy touching up paint, tidying flower-beds and so on. The agent's photos of the house are so nice we hardly recognise it!

The Sydney housing market seems to be holding up OK, based on recent sales in our local area, but who knows what might happen in the next few weeks on the economic front (rhetorical question...please don't answer).

What I would like to know is this: what about those tips for helping to sell the house: should we bake some bread shortly before the potential buyers pile in or brew the coffee...buy some flowers...etc. etc. Someone else told us we should have a doormat that says "welcome home"!

What have you done to help sell your house before returning to the UK?

Mummy in the foothills

My personal preference is a fresh clean smelling house. Maybe a little pledge behind your ears . Not really, you could just polish the dining table before you leave the house each time a buyer or potential gawker is coming in.
Saves on a dozen pots of coffee no one wants or a freezer full of home made bread.
What did trotty do differently when the buyers of her place came by I wonder, she'd had it up for sale a while.

killerhales

Mmmm, Pledge...

Mummy in the foothills

inaquandry

Try this book:

Make the most from your house sale: grooming your home for maximum
profit by Catherine Smith ; adapted for Australia by James Osborne.

Sold up at the beginning of the year and felt that the information in this book helped us to sell. I got mine from the library. Good luck!

trottytrue

Mummy in the foothills....Well apart from standing on one leg and singing 'God Save the Queen'. I did buy flowers for the table but as you said nothing better than a clean house. People see past the cookies and the coffee, in the end its the house itself. I made sure to leave loose leaf binders on the table with all the information on when we had the furnices cleaned and yearly receipts to show we had kept it up for at least 3 years we also have a septic system so showed the receipts for that. Also electric and tax bills for the house. Plus I kept all the appliance leaflets in another binder. I did get feedback that they liked that.
Also made sure to change all the towels. I had special sets for when we had showings also the same for bed covers. Nothing like nice crisp and clean and uncluttered. I made sure the wood floors had a good going over and always had potted plants outside the house and the walk up to the house looked nice.

I made a list of all the things that needed to be done before the showings. Its also some of the small things that matter. All toilets cleaned and all forcets polished nothing on the counters just the bare essentials. Windows cleaned curtains fresh. All the woodwork wiped down. The paint in all the rooms was neutral colours either white or cream or a light coffee.

I do wonder when I see homes for sale in the UK what people are thinking.Do they really want to sell, many of them are so cluttered and the colours the walls are painted are just ugly and in your face. When they paint walls dark colours it so hard to cover it up. Thats fine if you are not trying to sell but it would put me off buying if I had to think about covering up that dark paint.

killerhales

Thanks IAQ, I've searched on-line and found a copy in the Turramurra library which is not too far away. The tips from Trotty seem to cover most of the bases I think. We're open from around 2pm and my wife has a list (primarily cleaning) ready!

brits1

Good luck with the home open, I did not do the baking etc (most people know that trick and seem to think your hiding something ie covering up certain smells etc) what we always did was fresh flowers just in one room, either in a not so bright room if you have one or a room that is the centre piece of your home. Our bathrooms were cleaned to the hilt with all matching towels etc, even had the toilet rolls folded as it hotel rooms loll.....just made sure all windows etc were cleaned and no sight of any weeds etc and if you have lawns and flower beds just make sure they are in tip top condition, you really do have to have your home like a show home, for bedrooms just try and make sure you have all matching items and really declutter your home even if you just pack away things for now just declutter it will make your home look larger and also de personalize your items. All the best and try and go out somewhere you enjoy on your home open will help with the stress etc.

bandrui

I can't find this book for Canada but it was a very good tip and I have ordered 3 books through interlibrary loan on getting my house ready for sale, although I have my work cut out for me right now to do the myriad of things that I already know need doing, but it will be good to read these and bear the suggestions in mind as I work towards getting my house ready for sale.
Thanks.
Good tips also Trotty.

trottytrue

The biggest regret I have about selling our home was not getting the price right. We wanted as much as we could get for the house so we could buy something nice in the UK but we forgot the most important thing "Market Value', we hired the estate agent who was at the top of the price range when quoting what he could sell the house for. We should have gone with the middle of the road one and I believe it we had done that we would have sold it that first year.

At present in the US you have to be careful because in many areas you have 'foreclosures' muddying up the waters. You have to keep them out of the picture and go with those around you with similar footage and in somewhat of the same condition.

When we finally woke up with the last estate agent we made sure the people who came to look at the house had been 'Pre-Approved' by the banks as you can waste alot of time on people who cannot afford your home, we had a few of those, and whether by email or our agent bringing the document to our house we wanted to see it in black and white. We also had our own appraisal done and we had that ready for people to see and we had that added to the printout for the house. The only drawback to that is the appraisal is only good for 6 months but it did help when we sold ours as the people buying the house wanted to see it. Apart from that having a private inspection of your home can save you alot of problems we did not do that and regrette it. It will cost you a few hundred but it will save you alot of time later. They do a thorough check of your home and come back with all the problems with your home. If we had had ours done we would have known that the house would not have past the water test re. radon they also look at the roof and foundation. It saves alot of worry later.

Jerseygirl

In the US 'curb appeal' is very important. As well as keeping the garden neat and tidy...declutter anything from around the outside of the house. Around the front doorway is very important...keep it clean...shiny door brass etc.

Remove all evidence of pets. Remove all family photos/pictures. If you have family pics around the house and other personal items ie certificates etc it's difficult for potential buyers to imagine it as their house.

Rent a storage locker if possible and empty out the garage and basement. Remove as many clothes as possible from the wardrobes/closets. Every open house we've viewed the garage and basement have been completely empty.

As others have said neutral coloured walls are best.

inaquandry

I think Catherine Smith may be a Kiwi author, but not sure. There are a couple of copies of the book for sale on Ebay Australia right now.

It was the first time I had sold a house, so I found most of the advice useful. The biggest thing for me was the realisation that my home was to become a business transaction and not personal to me any more. I de-personalised it (as Jerseygirl mentions) and did many of the things the book said and some of the great advice mentioned above.


I also trawled Estate Agent websites worldwide to look at property photographs and got many ideas from them. Personally I found the US ones looked the most attractive and professional.

Of course at the end of the day, the price has to be right for a property to sell. We had massive differences between the lower and top end appraisal from the Estate Agents (Australia), so we got an independent valuation done and had what we felt was a true figure in the current market. That made us get real and not waste time with pie in the sky figures.

When you have done all you can, you just have to wait for that right buyer to be drawn to your property. It is very stressful!

Good luck all

sallysimmons

I think that making the property tidy and clean is a bonus, but the number one thing that matters is getting the price right. If you price your house correctly, it will sell. If you try to get more than it's worth, it will languish for years.

(And that means that if there are foreclosures around you, accept that the market value is now down there and get on with it. People who try to ignore the foreclosures are living in cloud cuckoo land).

I have looked at all the houses for sale in my area, and then mentally settled on a price that makes the house the very best value in the neighborhood. That way, when I do put the house on the market, I know that any buyers will see my house as the best value available. Life's too short to wait for top dollar.

killerhales

Well, we had nineteen potential buyers look at the house at the weekend.

Allowing for the inevitable agent "enthusiam", we were told that around a dozen would be typical for the first weekend. The agent said the house was looking "fantastic".

In NSW the system is that you have a draft sales contract drawn up in advance. Buyers who are seriously interested ask for a copy of the contract. One of our nineteen did so.

The agent will call back each of the nineteen today and I'll get further feedback tomorrow. We will have three more Saturday open houses with any additional visits by appointment.

I do think that's a good start. I'll keep you posted and thanks for the tips.

Mummy in the foothills

Excellent having so many come through. you could have all this house sale sewn up in no time, that would be amazing.
I just want the house one street over to get a really good price (up for $169,000 down from $400,000 in 07), ours is slightly smaller but in much better condition so would fetch about the same or close. And it's a foreclosure.