We apply our unique 7-step ADDRESS system to preparing every home we see for sale. By using a step by step approach it ensures every detail is covered and the home looks its absolute best before it is launched to market.
On average the homes we work with achieve sales up to 4 times faster than unstaged homes and we regularly see offers achieved at 10-15% above the guide price.
You can use these steps yourself, answering the questions in each section will really help you get inside the head of your buyer and make sure you are showcasing every aspect of your home to appeal directly to them. All the tips are taken from Elaine’s best-selling book ‘Sell High, Sell Fast – how to sell your home for the best possible price in the quickest possible time’ . Buy the book here.
Assess
- Why are you selling?
- Who is your buyer?
- What else is on the market that your buyers are going to be looking at?
- Take photos of your home.
- Create a mood board of what you like in the homes you view.
- How much clutter do you have?
- Ask a friend if your home has an unpleasant smell.
- Take a good look at your garden and any outbuildings and assess those too.
- Critically examine your exterior decoration. You don’t want your buyer to just drive past.
- Does your internal decor appear tired or dated?
- Look closely at your carpets – do they need cleaning or replacing?
- Write a to-do list and recruit help if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Declutter
- Equip yourself with boxes, labels and marker pens.
- Decide what is to stay and what must go.
- Recruit a friend or professional help. It’s much easier (and more fun) with two.
- Allocate everything into piles – ‘keep out’, ‘keep but pack now’, ‘throw away’.
- Get the ‘throw away’ pile out of the house and off to its final home.
- Decide whether you have space at home to store your ‘keep but pack now’ pile or whether you need to find storage off-site.
- Clean, clean, clean.
Decorate
- Take a close look at every room and any paintwork outside. Notice scuffs and marks. When did you last decorate? Are the colours still fashionable or are they making the house look dated?
- Take advice on the best colours to attract a buyer. Colour is something that daunts many sellers and they opt for a very boring neutral that doesn’t enhance the space on offer.
- Look at your ceilings and woodwork as well as the walls. They may also need painting.
- Find a decorator who can come quickly – it’s worth paying a little more to get on the market sooner.
- Painting one room may make other rooms look tired, so be prepared to do a bit more than you’d planned.
- Don’t forget the external woodwork (fascia boards and windows) and especially the garden gates.
- Complete any minor repairs at this stage.
Re-Imagine
- Be objective in your assessment of why each room is used for its current purpose.
- Does each room have a clearly defined function?
- Is the function of each room one which has relevance to most of the buyers you believe will be interested in buying your home? If you are not sure, then get professional advice from your estate agent or a home stager.
- If not, you need to rearrange your furniture or buy/rent furniture that will define the function more clearly.
- Check that the flow of your home makes sense. Make sure the way each room links with its neighbouring rooms will be appealing to a broad range of people. Now is the time to change things if necessary.
Emphasise
- Identify the areas you think are the strongest features of your home – perhaps an amazing conservatory, a cosy window seat, a contemporary kitchen or a sumptuous bathroom.
- How do you use these areas?
- What do you love about them?
- What can you do to tell the story of these areas to your viewers?
- Make a list of what needs to be done and what props you might need to really show off the spaces.
Stage
- Get everything together that you’re going to need. Choose a staging company to work with if you need additional items. It will probably be much more cost effective to rent than buy.
- If you’re staging your own home using the things you have, think about the focal point of each room and about using symmetry and creating balance for maximum effect.
- You may want to seek help positioning everything and creating the perfect scenarios in your home. Professional staging companies will do this for you, or you may have a friend with a great eye.
- If you’re bringing in new furniture, make sure the staging company provides a bespoke solution tailored for your home, not a furniture package.
- Book the photographer to come immediately after the staging is finished so there’s no chance of messing things up. Go out for dinner or even to a hotel for the night ahead of the photos being done. You may need to keep the kids and any pets out of the way for the evening too.
Sell
- Make sure you’ve signed all the paperwork your agent has given you.
- Approve your brochure and your online marketing as soon as the photos come back from the photographer. Do make sure your agent is using a professional photographer – no point spending a lot of time and effort getting your home looking great if the photography doesn’t show it at its best.
- Check in with your agent at least once a week. Be proactive – don’t leave it to your agent to call you.
- Ensure you, or your agent, have collated all the documents and information a viewer is likely to ask for.
- Choose a solicitor and let them know you’re selling ahead of any offers coming in. If you instruct them early, they’ll get your property pack ready with all the necessary forms. This way, everything will be available as soon as you have accepted an offer.
- Keep in touch with your solicitor once you have accepted an offer. Understand exactly what stage the progression of your sale is in and where any hold-ups occur so that you can act quickly to move things along if necessary.
- Start planning your move, whether you have bought or you’re moving into rented accommodation.
To purchase your own copy of the book, Sell High, Sell Fast please click here.
