Painting You should paint any scruffy bathroom ceilings and any hallways and rooms if the existing colours are very dark. Go for a light, neutral colour. Paint your front door to improve a buyer’s first impression with a bold, glossy colour that fits the exterior colour scheme of your property. Re-staining wooden decks can also be a fairly simple job without too much prep work involved, and make a big difference to the overall appeal of your home. Gardening You want your garden to appear as low maintenance as possible, and a well maintained section gives buyers confidence that you have taken care of your property. Make sure any trees and hedges are not coming into contact with the house itself. Ensure paths are clear from overhanging branches of leaves and trim anything that is blocking light! Be ruthless. Mulch can be your best friend to provide attractive ground cover over bland areas once you have cleared out the weeds. Washing & Cleaning Sometimes all that is required to make a big difference to the presentation of your property is a good, thorough house wash. Done professionally, it can cost a bit more than you might think but it’s worth every penny. Be sure to also wash gutters, paths and driveways too. Clean the interior as if your mother-in-law is coming to stay. Buyers will poke around and inspect every nook and cranny. Clean all those surfaces you don’t normally bother with – like the top of the range hood, inside your pantry, behind toilets, in high corners and inside wardrobes. Dryclean drapes if you have them: buyers love looking behind curtains to see if they can find spots of mould (and owners always forget to look there). De-cluttering Firstly, take out everything you absolutely don’t need for daily life. Now take out some more. The more you take out of a room, the bigger it will feel to a prospective buyer. Leave prints and paintings on the wall but clear any surfaces like the tops of bookcases, windowsills, the front of your fridge, the entire kitchen bench, dining table, desks etc. Note, as long as buyers can walk into your garage and see how big it is, it’s ok to store some boxes and furniture in it. A garage is a garage for most people. These are the top four things you can do that provide you with the best possible return on time and money invested: Top four tips for preparing to sell
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