Following on from his last guest blog Howard Bottomley, Director at EweMove North Leeds discusses whether decorating your house prior to selling is important or not.
When the time comes to sell and you’re looking at inviting those evil estate agents around, you’ll be wondering whether it’s worth the investment and cost of repairing and decorating your home. You may consider this to be a wasted expense given that the new buyers may want to change the home according to their own personal taste. You can ask estate agents for advice and in almost every case you’ll get the reply that you should market the home as it is, because it’s impossible to know the requirements of your potential purchaser.
Frankly, I don’t buy into this school of thought. Estate agents are trained to sign up customers on the spot. They know that giving the client any chance to take time out and think about their decision, such as going away and doing home improvements, is an opportunity for that client to go to another agent. For this reason, you must question whether the agent is giving you the best advice …
The majority of buyers are simply looking for a home that they can move into straight away. Their budgets are likely to be limited and they may not have the skills or inclination to embark upon a DIY project.
So, I remain of the very firm opinion that it’s almost always in the best interests of a client to do whatever reasonable works can be done to make the house shipshape and ready for sale.
This does not mean that you have to decorate your house from top to bottom. Look for certain areas that may need freshening up. Heavy duty places such as a living room, dining room or stairways are often parts of your home that get the odd marking and discolouration from use.
The rule here is – keep it as simple as possible.
The cost of getting the paint and doing the work yourself will be relatively inexpensive. And you can significantly enhance the appearance of your home and its value. It might seem a bit of a challenge, but ask yourself this, “Are you prepared to spend a couple of weekends to potentially achieve the equivalent amount of money that could pay for an incredible family holiday?”.
As ever, please give me a call on 07470 44 63 66, if you’d like a chat about your house. Even if you have no immediate plans to move, I’m always happy to help.
Howard Bottomley, Director, EweMove North Leeds
07470 44 63 66
Facebook
*Advertorial blog for EweMove North Leeds
