A home not a property

Tidying makes sense anyway, because you will be much more ready to move when you do sell. (You’ll be so fed up with clearing up that you’ll have got rid of a lot of the things you are clearing up by the time the sale is agreed.) Plus you get to live in a show home in the meantime.

…or not quite a show home. Never forget that your buyers are not viewing a property, they are imagining a home. So personal items should not be hidden away. Leave out the family photos. Keep the cookbook open on the island unit. If you’re selling a country home, leave those wellie boots by the door. They will make your viewers think about all the lovely walks they’re going to do.

Smells like home

Which brings us back to scent. How your home smells is unbelievably important – smells are both immediate and lasting. They create an emotional impact more than anything else. Scent preferences are even more personal than visual ones, though, so don’t overdo it with perfumed candles or plug-ins. Bad smells should be fixed if you possibly can – some baking soda down the plugholes can do wonders, and you can try it on the sink as well as the dog. (That is a joke: please do not put baking soda anywhere near your dog’s backside.)

It’s also crucial to make sure your house is aired and heated to avoid damp. Almost nothing is more off-putting than the smell of damp: it shouts ‘money pit!’ and ‘health problems!’ at the same time. And it may be a cliché to make fresh coffee or fresh bread, before a viewing, but it works. Why? Because coffee and bread don’t just smell good they smell like home. The same goes for a pot of something in the oven. Nothing says ‘homely’ more than a casserole in the warming oven, waiting for the family to return.

Think about sound, too. Ask the neighbour’s children not to practice drumming in viewing hours. And you could leave a radio on, quietly. Something classy? Radio 3? Remember: viewing a home is aspirational.

To redecorate or not to redecorate?

The big question most people ask their agent is whether or not they should redecorate. And the big answer is… it depends. If you have a ‘statement wall’ that, let’s be honest, isn’t to everyone’s taste – flamingo wallpaper or all-black paint, perhaps? – then repainting in a neutral grey or cream is a good idea. Walls are quick and relatively cheap to paint. (Woodwork is another matter.) If, however, the paintwork in the whole house probably needs doing, then most agents would agree that you are unlikely to get back (in the form of an improved offer) what you spend. People buying houses often have plans to redecorate already; if they like the house, fundamentally, a bit of tired paint isn’t likely to put them off.

One thing not to do is to paint over that damp patch. At least, it’s a risk. There’s a fair chance it’ll get spotted anyway, in a survey, and if it is then your buyers will immediately think ‘what else are the vendors covering up?’ Trust, in the lead up to exchange, is something you do not want to squander.

Kerbing their enthusiasm

The exterior is another easy win. Estate agents always talk about kerb appeal. There’s actually very little evidence that people make up their minds within the first few seconds or minutes, or whatever it is people say, but it’s certainly true that once somebody is put off it’s harder to bring them round again. Sweep the path. Clean the windows. Straighten up the bins. Pull out weeds. Clip the hedge.

If you have a flowering plant in a pot, put it by the front door. And if your neighbour has an old sofa out there, offer to take it to the dump. Again, all this is low-hanging, cheaply harvestable fruit. Repainting the whole exterior is probably not worth it, unless it’s in an awful state. It’s easy enough to clean down and touch up the paintwork, though.

Spare rooms

Something that’s often forgotten is the spare room. Maybe you use it as a box room, or a gym, but your viewers need to be able to imagine it as a bedroom. So dress the set. If you haven’t got a bed in there, borrow or buy one. And do take the trouble to put a little side table beside it with a lamp and maybe a book. Little touches like that are transformative.

Light

Everyone loves light. Make the most of what you have by turning on side lamps (much more inviting than overhead lights) and using warmer-coloured or brighter bulbs. Consider buying a cheap lamp or two for those darker corners. And – estate agents don’t seem to suggest this very often, maybe because it’s a hassle for them – consider when your viewings take place. It might be a bit much to only offer them on sunny days! But if your home is oriented east-west, and it’s flooded with light in the morning and late afternoon, maybe don’t schedule viewings for the middle of the day.

Going for it

Spending a little bit of money on relatively inexpensive things, to sum up, is probably worth doing. Spend quite a lot of money, however, is more and more of a risk. The more you spend, the higher the risk that you will not earn it back – or at least, the bigger the financial consequences if you don’t. That is true, however, up to a certain tipping point. Because some of the most expensive improvements of all can be worth doing, in purely financial terms.

A loft extension, for instance, is often said to add (very roughly) 20% to the value of a house in the UK. Given that a loft extension typically costs between £25,000 and £50,000, and that the average value of a British home is over £250,000, you don’t need A-level maths to be able to see that getting the loft done for sale might be worth it. Worth it in financial terms, that is. You’d have to live with the building works.

You’d also have to be very sure you’d done your homework – regarding both the real cost of a loft extension in your home, with its peculiarities, and potentially its planning restrictions, and also regarding the potential increase in value in your area, and for your size and layout of house. Don’t forget to factor in the financial costs, too. If you’re borrowing to finance a loft conversion, you’ll pay interest on that loan right up until the moment you complete on the sale.