It’s been a few months since we moved house, and I’ve recovered from the experience enough to share my wisdom on getting your home (and yourself) ready for sale. If you google styling/staging a house for sale, chances are the advice you’ll come up with is to declutter, depersonalise, and generally make your house as bland and neutral as possible. This advice is given because – apparently – the general house-buying public are too stupid to be able to visualise a home with their things in it, when it has all YOUR things in it.

Now, I’ve bought and sold quite a few houses in my time, and I’m going to tell you that advice is total bullcrap. Of all the open homes I’ve been to, it’s not the professionally staged ones that look like a Freedom Furniture catalogue which stick in my mind. It’s the ones with the original period features, or the kick-ass statement art on the wall. It’s the ones with “good bones” even if the décor is a bit dated. On a less positive note, it’s also the ones that stink to high heaven or make me want to douse myself in disinfectant the moment I walk out of the place.

When we sold our townhouse earlier this year, the market was flat and our real estate agent told us that if we got 5 groups through the first open home it would be considered a success. We didn’t declutter or depersonalise before the open home and guess what? More than 20 groups came through our first open home and that resulted in two offers less than a week after we put the house on the market (and we accepted one of those offers). What we did do was make sure the house was immaculately clean and tidy inside and out. We also did plenty of research on what was selling in the area and agreed on a realistic price we were happy to walk away with before even meeting with any agents. Not surprisingly, the figure we came up with was exactly what we sold for. We’ve used the same strategy with all the houses we’ve sold, and whether it was a high or low market we’ve always had similar results.  

So here are my top tips on getting ready to sell your home:

• Clean, clean and clean some more. Make sure all areas are tidy and accessible, but unless you’re a certified hoarder there’s no need for a major exercise in decluttering. If a potential buyer can’t see past your personal taste in artwork/décor/furnishings, they probably weren’t that interested in the house in the first place.
• Make sure the house smells nice, but not overwhelming. There’s an old chestnut about baking cookies or bread to give your house a homely smell. Don’t bother with that – a nice scented candle lit just before the open home will do the trick.
• Do your research. Go to open homes in your area and get a feel for what the market’s like. Look online for recent sales of homes similar to yours to see what they sold for. Decide on your “bottom dollar” price before meeting with any agents, but don’t disclose this amount to them. If an agent can’t give you a ballpark figure of what they think your property is worth, walk away. Make sure that you get more than one agent’s appraisal, and if their price estimates are all vastly different to your “bottom dollar” amount, you might need to reconsider your expectations or get a registered market valuation for certainty.

In a nutshell, you want to present your home in the best light possible, but being realistic about the price you’re willing to accept is the best thing you can do to ensure it sells promptly. There’s no amount of styling or staging you can do to get top dollar for a house with worn carpet, a 20 year old kitchen, or that smells like something died in it. BUT, there is a buyer for every property at the right price.