With the crocuses starting to blossom and spring around the corner, if you are thinking of selling your home, don’t forget that buyers decide how they feel in eight seconds, even before they have rung the bell.
You don’t get a second chance to form a ‘first impression’.
Titivating your home in advance of a sale is so important. Here are a few dos and don’ts for you to contemplate.
The simple stuff
Paint the front door
Clean the path
Wash the windows
Tidy the garden
Yes, even the garage door.
Kerb appeal isn’t fluff — it’s money.
Sort the garden (it’s free square footage)
It costs nothing and adds thousands in perceived value. Mow. Edge. Trim and tidy.
Plant something cheerful — tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, all would be good. Spring buyers want lifestyle, not DIY punishment.
A tidy garden equals ‘move-in ready’ and a jungle equals ‘money pit’.
Declutter like you’re moving tomorrow
Less stuff equals bigger rooms equals higher offers. It’s math’s, not magic.
Get a brutally honest friend to walk round and tell you the truth: ‘Bin it, box it, or charity shop it.’
If your house looks like an antiques warehouse, buyers mentally discount it. Space is luxurious. Clutter is chaos!
Fix the silly little things
Dripping taps
Loose handles
Cracked tiles
Creaking boards.
These are cheap to fix, but expensive in the buyer’s imagination.
Tiny defects scream: ‘If this is what I can see… what horrors lurk beneath?’
Confidence evaporates. So does money.
Natural light is invigorating
Open the curtains. Clean the glass windows. Add lamps where necessary and let sunshine in (remember the song!). Bright homes feel bigger, happier, and more valuable. Dark rooms feel like a Victorian crime novel, with a bad ending.
This is psychology, not witchcraft.
Price it sensibly (not emotionally)
Your memories aren’t worth hundreds of thousands extra. Sorry.
Never forget, price is either an accelerator or a brake. Plenty of the former and less of the latter. A keen price creates competition which creates bids, and this leads to a happy ending.
Overpricing puts the sale in the freezer.
Professional photos + drone
You’re selling a seven-figure asset. Don’t market it like a car-boot sale. No toilet seats up or dirty washing on display. Dress it like Sunday best. Think magazine shoot, not Monday morning chaos.
Smell matters (more than you think)
Fresh air, subtle candles, preferably ones that don’t smell like Harpic, create ambience. Hide the dog bed and bake bread or cake if you can, it works a treat.
Create hotel vibes
Fresh towels, crisp bedding, neutral colours – you’re staging, not living.
Buyers pay more for homes that say: ‘Bring your suitcase and food and live the dream.’
Pick the right agent (not the cheapest)
Exposure plus negotiation skill equals a bigger price.
Saving 0.5% in fees but losing 5% on value is not savvy, it’s self-harm.
You want a dealmaker, not someone who just opens doors and nods.
‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’. If some ‘silver tongued’ agent gives you an inflated idea of value, take no notice. In a challenging market, realistic prices provoke a dynamic reaction and over pricing is a ‘Debbie Downer’ on the sale.
Offer the negotiator a bonus
Incentives work. Always have. Always will.
When your sale competes with five others, guess which one gets the prize?
This is not rocket science!
Money talks and ‘BS’ walks.
Serious Don’ts — avoid these own goals
Don’t start half-baked renovations. Half a kitchen and missing skirting boards with bare plaster scream, ‘I ran out of money or energy.’
Finish the job properly or don’t start it in the first place. Half measures equal lower offers.
Don’t hover during viewings
Nothing kills romance faster than the owner shadowing buyers like a security guard. Disappear and feign indifference.
Mystery sells better than monologues – less is more.
Rugby tackling a viewer of your home when they leave, to beg them to stay longer, is never a good idea.
Remember, when you are in a clothes shop, how uncomfortable you feel when a salesperson is ‘over you like a rash’!
Don’t restrict access
If buyers can’t view, they can’t buy. Simple. Spring markets move fast. Be flexible or be forgotten.
Don’t leave paperwork to the last minute
Planning consents, guarantees, leases, service charges, local searches — gather it all early. When a deal is agreed, speed wins. Delay kills momentum and sometimes the buyer.
Forewarned equals forearmed.
Don’t skip the For Sale board
It costs nothing and it works ridiculously well.
It’s the cheapest marketing device in the agent’s toolbox.
When you lock the front door for the last time, do it in the knowledge that you couldn’t have done anything else to get better sale terms. Very satisfying.
No board equals plenty of doubts.
Final word
This is mostly common sense. Which is precisely why so few people actually do it. But every tiny detail adds thousands to your bottom line.
Do it properly and you just don’t just sell…you sell faster, you sell efficiently and often, you sell for more.
After 52 years as an apprentice in the estate agency business, if you follow these basic pointers, you can’t go wrong, or so the theory would have us believe.
Trust me, I’m an estate agent!
By Trevor Abrahsohn, Glentree International