When Your Selling Your House...

picture from my favourite house blog Hooked on Houses

ALERT: This is a long post so I have decided to cut it into 3.


There arent many things that I feel I can talk about. Ideas I have loads, but there are two things I know - I like white bread only and the other one is how to stage a house to sell it.  Everything else, I am probably shooting from the hip. These are our experiences and observations, everyone will do things differently and every move is different. This will just give you some ideas...

I have thought about this a lot lately due to peoples blog posts, comments from friends and family about they changes we are making and in general, people tend to market their home around Easter.

Many people come back from holidays in say a hotel or a Gite in France or a holiday home else where.  People tend to say how nice and airy it was, and easy to keep and think how uncomplicated it all is.  How it was so practical and tidy and easy to clean  Then they come home, air port rage, you've have lost a suit case, the transfer bus takes for ever to arrive, the kids are whining.  Then you cant remember where you parked the car in the airport parking.  (been here seen it with my family, TIP - take a picture on your phone of the parking number and area).

You arrive home, suitcases are emptied out in front of washers, theres a tonne of post.  You look around your home and you have a visuals headache.  This is not the home from the magazine or the holiday home with all of the sun you have just left behind.  Normal life resumes and it all feels claustrophobic.  Seems familiar to some?  I see you, nodding your head to at least one of these things. (OK so I dont really, that would be creepy).  Could it be that you have more things than you need?

So, firstly why do you want to move...? If you answer that you need more room and you have more spare beds than people who sleep in them, think about how each room is used.  As you may not need to move.  Especially if you really like the area.

Forget Marie Kondo, that isnt going to be fast enough, she says 6 months.  The summer is coming - you need a skip, a dumpster if you are American.  Go through everything.  Anything that isnt an heirloom, or you might die if you dont have it, get rid.  All the rubbish throw it out.  Car boots near your house?  You are going to frequent them to sell.  YOU ARE NOT GOING THERE TO BUY MORE.  If you are a hoarder, have a friend who is "firm", there to help you throw it all away.  You will only pay the removal men to move it to the next house.  It will sit in a box for 6 months and then it will move to the loft and never be opened.  You are paying mortgage payments to house toilet roll rockets, all 20 of them, from when your child was 2, they are now 30 and have children of their own?  Keep 1, take a picture of the rest and recycle them.

Moving home costs lots of money.  Removal men, stamp duty, solicitors fees, time taken off work to view if needs be.  You have to be sure that you really do have to move.  Or you could just be like me and you dont mind moving, your an old hand. you can skip to the end and leave all of your helpful tips for moving and ditching the junk.

Now you have pared right back, do you still want to move?  If you do read on

My advise when selling a house

•  clean it to within an inch of its life.  And then bring in a professional cleaner.  Get the ovens and everything clean.  Bathrooms and kitchens really do sell the house.

Even if you house isnt perfect, it will make the people think the house has been well cared for.

• Get rid of everything but the basics.  most people buy a house to go larger.  They dont want to see that the people who live there, dont fit, especially if their family is bigger than yours.

• Start to think and get into the habit of thinking - you are trying to make money here, so every morning when you leave the house, your home is your show room.  Leave it exactly at its best.  Keep on top of the laundry and dishes.  Leave nothing in the sink.  Sounds easy right?  start now.  It will become easier.

• Each room you have said is a bedroom, should look like a bedroom.  

Your house is up against new builds, perfectly styled, they have had marketing people look at it and have all the tricks to sell you a house.  The sofas maybe slightly smaller, they wont have cupboards in the room, as the rooms are quite small.  People realise this, but because there isnt work to do fixing it up and it is all fresh and clean they buy them.  You have to go the extra mile.  In your box room, that you have used as an office or a dump ground, borrow a bed, or buy a cheap Z bed, or even go to a charity shop and buy a bed (we have done this 3 times).  Make it look usable.  The bed can then be donated back to the charity shop.  Are you going to really jeopardise a sale of your biggest asset for the want of a £40 bed and giving those people with no vision a reason to not buy you house?

• Get a friend to look at your house and critique it.  You have seen it on Phil Spencer, Secret Agent, where he gives them the truth in a pamphlet.  Someone telling you what they see as they enter the house and anything that they would be worried about, new buyers will also.  You become immune to things as the years go on.  You no longer see it.  A really good friend or family member will tell you what they think.  They want to help you and they want you to be happy and that means selling and moving.

Did I say clean?

• Clean clean clean.  And dont forget the garden.  Clean all hard standing areas, jet wash them if they look dingy.

Now you are nearly there, do you think you are ready for Estate Agents to view your house and value it?  

Post 2, will cover about what we have learnt from dealing with Estate Agents

Please leave any helpful comments you can think of.  I will add them to post 3 all in the one place so people can see them without searching.  I will cut and paste with your blog links.  Please put them in the body of the comment text.