Tips on selling your home Part 3 Clean it up When it’s time to let a prospective purchaser inspect the house, it definitely helps to “spruce” the place up a bit. “It only makes common sense to make the property ready for viewing. One should spruce up the place and just make it look more appealing,” says Siva. “When a prospective purchaser walks into the house, turn on the air-conditioning, spray a little air freshener to make it a pleasant experience.” Nixon concurs that first impressions, especially appearances, can either make or break a deal. “When the house does not look good, it would not be able to command good value.” In Western countries, this is known as “staging,” which is essentially the act of preparing a home (and its contents) for sale, with a special emphasis on presentation and appearance. According to US-based property website omeBuyingInstitute, staging a home for sale normally involves things of an aesthetic nature, such as design, organisation and overall appearance (as opposed to mechanical or functional improvements). The goal of staging is to improve the home’s appearance in the eyes of potential buyers, with the ultimate aim of selling the home more quickly and for the highest possible price. Siva says that if the house is vacated, every effort should be made to make it look as habitable as possible. “If a home is vacated for a while, it might look abandoned or even a little bit run down and a lot of people don’t want to spend money sprucing it up. By not doing this, you’re only doing a disservice to yourself. “Even if it’s for rent, the landlord, instead of spending money to improve the condition of the home, would rather wait to secure a tenant first before deciding to do anything.” He says the seller or landlord should spend money to fix whatever defects that are visible as soon as possible. “A simple thing like giving it a fresh coat of paint would help to do wonders. Sure, a buyer might end up renovating the place soon after. But if he likes what he sees, the seller can command a higher value for the house.” Source : The Star
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 08:32:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015