1. You have one chance to make a good first impression. Make sure your house looks welcoming from the kerb otherwise many prospective buyers will keep driving. That means having the
green green lawn mowed regularly (make sure its green
), weeds pulled, leaves raked, garden mulched (thats a biggie like cookie suggested), maybe some flowering pots or a pot near the entry. No spiders webs. Get a new front door mat. Your doorway needs to look like the gateway to heaven. Sweep it every day.
2. Pack away most of the kiddies toys (except for maybe their precious ones, the kids will survive without them believe it or not). Get rid of all the clutter, have a garage sale and or donate to charity. Buy each kid a big crate to store in the garage and get them to fill it with only the stuff they want to take to the new house, or stuff that is not junk. Once that lid goes on - thats it for them. You need to be harsh and non-emotional because when you get to the new house you will find that you have actually brought a lot of cr$p with you that you are going to have to find a space for. You can always take photo's of things that perhaps you are finding hard to decide whether you need to ditch.
3. Rooms should be designated spaces. Don't have a junk room where you have heaped lots of stuff cos you don't know where to put it. Buyers will see that and it will be a big turn off because it looks like your house doesn't have a lot of storage or cupboard space. Don't have dual purpose rooms ie. an office and a bedroom, a sewing room and a bedroom - make it one or the other.
4. Vacume regularly and just before a home open or inspection just spray some Mr Sheen or use something similar around and people will associate it with a 'clean' house
(works for me).
5. Make sure your sink is clean and spotless.
6. If you are unable to justify hire furniture perhaps consider making a budget for "selling the house" but that you can also take with you eg. buy some really nice cushions for the lounge, doona's for the girls beds, mats from IKEA, a table runner and a really striking table decoration.
7. If you have a home open or inspection get your pet accessories out of the picture. People who do not like say dogs or cats will be put off by seeing their beds, food & water bowls, toys and scratchie carpet tower thingos. Likewise with pet doo, out of side out of mind.
8. If the agent calls and says they have someone who wants to come through now....think...look...and just get rid of all the cr$p that is not in its place and have a box to throw it all into and store in a cupboard out of view, or even... throw it in the boot of the car and just take off to the park etc!
9. Lucky last - if your house is basically ready to view and your agent has a prospective buyer who wants to go through, don't put them off by saying one of the kids has to go down for a sleep. Get the buyer through the house by all means and forego the sleep, or maybe the sleep can be had elsewhere at a friends/relatives house in a portacot or in your arms at a park etc. You need to set your priorities.
