Thread: Trying to Sell house, Any tips?

I am about to put my house on the market, in the hope of a quick sale, and wondered if any of you have any tips?

Having only ever sold a house to a council without having to do any work on it, this the first time ill be allowing people to come and have a good look round!

We currently have have a 3 bed semi with a large conservatory, we have decided to paint our room and the spare room a cream colour - was orange and spare room is dark red and cream, looks nice I think but probably not to everyone choice! Our daughters room is lilac with a peelable border, so want to leave that as it is!

What do you look for when going to buy a house?! We could see beyond the tip this house was when we bought it and it looks 100 times better than when we bought it! We have loads of toys for our daughter that my sis has offered to put in her garage when we have viewings which is handy!

Hiya

Have a good read over here

BBC - Homes - Property - Selling

Some excellent tips on here

Mike

ohh this is tricky. cause some buyers have absolutly no idea and cannot see the potential in any property.

i had some nincompoop once say, 'oh thats a rather large sofa! to which i relplied oh im sorry the sofa isnt part of the fixtures and fittings, but im sure yours would look equally as nice in this room

my hairdresser the other day, chose her new house because the walls were painted rather than wallpapered! like what difference does that make?

it dosent matter to me when im buying, what colour the walls are , or if its papered or painted or what type of carpet, cause the first thing i always do is rip out all of the carpets, and totally redecorate every room.

i dont tend to look at 'immaculatly presented properties' that dosent mean anything to me, because immaculately presented may be to the current owers taste and not to mine, so even if it was immaculate. i would redecorate the week i moved in.

im a property inspector ( im not a estate agent)
i I assess the quality of the furnishings and fittings and equipment in a property. sometimes i have to bite my tongue, casue it could be extremly well decorated and finished but it could be purple and yellow!!

I'm with your hairdresser on the painted walls front. I wouldn't be put off by wall papered walls (which I hate) but I am aware that in the sorts of houses I like, the wallpaper could be hiding amultitude of sins!

Our house has required all the plaster taken off back to brick which is very messy and then completely replastering rather than just a skim over

Mess and cost means that the price I am prepared to pay for a house with nice walls - doesn't matter on the colour - is higher and if there was a choice between painted and not then I would go for the painted one

Hiya Ajax,

When me and my ex bought our house last year it had been previously owned by a pensioner couple. The kitchen walls were covered in a mixture of blue and brown tiles and that horrible chipboard stuff that is supposed to look like wood! The units were 70's brown wood effect melamine. There were polystyrene tiles on the ceiling and the floor was covered in four different types of sticky tiles. The first job I had done was to rip it all out and replaster then replace the units, though I still have to paint the walls and put up tiles I'm much happier with how it looks now! haha!

The rest of the house is still in a state (I haven't got the money to do all the jobs now we're separated). I've ripped all the poly ceiling tiles down, the navy blue bathroom tiles (and navy blue plastic suite) have been ripped out and I've had them replaced.

There are 3 layers of painted woodchop on the hall walls and 2 in the living room. My bedroom is painted the most sickly shade of pink. I could go on and on, there's so much to do. The only rooms that are finished are the 2 childrens' bedrooms, so they're happy hehe!

What do I look for when buying a house? It's not so much a look as a 'feeling', though obviously the condition of the house is important. This house had a large kitchen diner, large sitting room 3 bedrooms and a good sized garden. They were the only things on my wish list and because I only had a limited price range (and had lost out on 6 others) I've had to make do with spending money to get it to look the way I want. The positive points have definitely outweighed the negatives as far as I'm concerned.

The feel of a house is what I go by, if it does not feel right then that is it, its not right.

I'm with Mini, it's all about the feeling for me too. Probably not the sensible way to choose a house, heart ruling head etc; but it has to feel right for me. Probably just a stupid female thing, sorry!

Having said that we've only ever bought 2 houses, the first one we stayed in 2 years and were happy but just outgrew it. The 2nd we're still in 12 years later so maybe we just got lucky twice.

Every house we have brought has been a 'project' ...lol. But we have seen the potential. Unfortunately not all people can. When we sold out last house the rooms were all painted a neutral cream colour and downstairs had laminate flooring. We completely decluttered downstairs... obviously the kids had toys in their rooms but we kept them tidy. Make sure the garden looks nice... even if you just cut the grass it makes a difference.

Pip

Pip, your house sounds like our last house! all neutral walls and laminate etc., We spent a fortune on doing ours up ready to sell only to find out a few weeks later that the new owners had ripped out all the laminate, the brand new fire and surround (which cost us over £1000!) and other things. If we'd known they didn't want those things we could've removed them ourselves and dropped the asking price but they didn't say a word

If I was them I'd have left everything at least for a few months before ripping the place apart.

Thank you all for your tips, We spent most of today trying to fix up the fences in the garden, painted them and now they look like new!
Tomorrow my sister is looking after my daughter so we can get two of our bedrooms painted neutral, and painting the doors again so they look nice and new!

Will let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Mrs Depp

Pip, your house sounds like our last house! all neutral walls and laminate etc., We spent a fortune on doing ours up ready to sell only to find out a few weeks later that the new owners had ripped out all the laminate, the brand new fire and surround (which cost us over £1000!) and other things. If we'd known they didn't want those things we could've removed them ourselves and dropped the asking price but they didn't say a word

If I was them I'd have left everything at least for a few months before ripping the place apart.

How annoying! I think we spent around £5000 getting the place finished. We had extensive work to do in the downstairs hall (big hole in ceiling caused by a flood in the bathroom!) and we ended up getting someone in to decorate. We did get it all done in around a month and actually sold the house privately within a couple of days so it was worth every penny IMO.

We were going to replace the garage door but just tidied it up and I was glad of this as I notice they have now coverted the garage so it would have been a waste of our money. I was sad to see that the brand new wooden front door we had fitted had been replaced by a double glazed one though.

I like the house I bought when I walked around it...got the feeling and I saw potential...

I said to husband this is fine we don't have to do anything....

So when I started pulling out the bathroom, fireplace, carpet, curtains, poles, blinds, light fittings and began re-painting...he was a bit puzzled by why I had said the house was perfect and then I go and change all these things

I said it was perfect, we don't have to knock any walls or extend!!!

Funny how women and men look at things so differently

Love Mini xxx

PS...I did hear back that someone had said..."and they even threw out the new fireplace"!!!

Besides being well looked after and no hideous colours the most important thing is too price it correctly. Too many people ask too much for their houses and then wonder why they stick.

I have sold more than ten houses over the years and they have never taken longer than two weeks to sell. Get at least 3 agents in to value it and this will give you a fair idea of the right price and never give sole agency.

No matter what you do to your house it will always be changed by the Purchasers so just make sure it is clean and tidy.

Good luck and I hope it goes well

Pam

Well, its on the market, and worth about 10k more than we thought which is a bonus!!! Had three people call for viewings already, but one pulled out as they viewed one similar near to us and the bedrooms were too small!

Had a couple look last night and they spent ages looking round. not sure that was good or bad! Waiting to hear from estate agent today. Also have an investor looking tonight!

Will let you know how it goes.