How to effectively dress your home to improve your opportunity to sell quickly and achieve the best price.
THE DIFFERENCE IN PATRICK OLIVER'S APPROACH =
PHOTOS
ADVICE
PRESENTATION
TIME AND EFFORT
It is important to recognise that buyers have only 15-20 minutes to remember the house and therefore it should be dressed not just to show it, but to show it OFF! Studies show that perception of value increases by up to 12% when a property is photographed professionally. To best market your house, we want the photos to be sharp and taken in the optimum light. We choose our angles carefully and then take many in each room to give variety for marketing.
We suggest the following to help us take the perfect photos of your property:
- Clean the property thoroughly top to bottom - Buyers notice cleanliness, so wipe down all the doors, skirting boards, marks on walls, blinds etc.
- Put a fragrant essential oil in the vacuum cleaner where the air filter is and it instantly freshens the smell in the home.
- Tidy up any snagging; gardening; woodwork; that can be done.
- Remove any grime and re-grout in the bathrooms ( or use bleach!).
- Clear all clutter, and any personal mementos, photos; from all rooms, including bathrooms, kitchen worktops, toys, etc.
- Paint any scuff marks, chipped paint. Paint any rooms that need attention in neutral colours.
- Dress the house with bowls of fruit, bake some bread, and put reed diffusers in rooms.
- Ensure any distractions, like TV, radio, newspapers, children, and pets, are all out of the way.
The prettier the photographs, the more interest you’ll get from buyers and the closer you will achieve to the asking price.
EIGHT MINUTES TO CHOOSE A HOME - (from a Nationwide Agent's Study)
Busy roads, damp patches, and a bar in a living room are among the things that turn buyers away.
It takes just 8 minutes for house-hunters to know whether a new property is for them, according to a study recently by a large independent agent. After less than 10 minutes inside a property, buyers know whether they should be getting out their cheque books or turning around in the car.
6 in 10 adults will make their decision not to buy before even stepping through the front door- after just 4 and a half minutes of standing outside.
In contrast, 15% of home owners admitted they had already decided to buy without seeing inside the house, while 18% have bought the first home they saw. When viewing a property online, the average person takes 8 minutes to choose other to visit or not- as long as the advert is authentic. More than 3/4s confessed to irritation at a property profile that did not reflect the true state of the home on offer.
Listings are crucial to a home selling quickly - they need to be accurate detailed representations of a property. They need to physically visit a property will remain strong for the foreseeable future., but new technologies such as 3D virtual tours or 2-3 minute video sent to house-hunters prior or after viewing, are making it possible to view interiors and exteriors in much greater detail, helping buyers to narrow their property search quickly and efficiently.
Obvious damp patches would signal an early exit for 6 in 10 Brits, while a house on a main road or cracks in the walls would send 40% of house hunters home.
As for the finer details, there are some decisive deterrents for adults once inside- ashtrays in rooms; dirty toilet pipes; overflowing bins; and yellowed paintwork, all feature in the top 40 list. As do bad DIY; wheelie bins out front; untidy rooms; and a bar in the living room.
Some of us would be put off by a utility room which was the size of a cupboard, a dining room which can’t fit a table big enough for a family of 8, and awkward layouts.
When viewing properties online, 6 in 10 find it impossible to see how big the rooms are, and 49% can’t tell tell how light they are. Mote than 1 in 10 complain they cant tell the colour of rooms from static pictures, and 52% find it difficult to tell how overlooked a property is.
A third of people would welcome the opportunity to see if their furniture would fit in the space, while 36% want a clear view of the layout of the rooms when looking at a property online.
House-hunters are understandably particular when it comes to buying a property- as they should be over one the biggest investments they’ll ever make. We always encourage people not to dismiss a property over attributes which can be changed; it’s really important to look past the dirty dishes or garden gnomes and more towards the shape, size, and structure of the property.
However, sellers and their Estate Agent, can go a long way to avoiding any of the pitfalls above by working hard to present the property in its best light from the start. That is why we work with you to achieve the right look as we know what makes house-hunters want to buy, given that they will have only 8 minutes to make a life time decision.
