Preparing to Sell Your Property

Despite the media repeating nothing but doom and gloom messages, the economy is actually starting to turn upwards again and there are signs everywhere of houses starting to sell again. More and more For Sale boards are going up, solicitors are getting busier – it’s looking up, folks!

With all that in mind, you might be thinking about selling your property. And with another May Bank Holiday just around the corner, why not start getting your house prepared for selling. We have all watched House Doctor and have seen what a difference it makes to show your house off at its best. And that means it needs to look and feel spacious providing enough storage for your belongings.

So why not use the Bank Holiday weekend for just that, a good sort out, rearranging and reorganising, maybe some gardening to get everything into good shape. It’ll also make things easier once you get to moving yourself since you will have a lot less clutter to move if you do a good sort out beforehand. You might even get as far as using your garage for the purpose it was intending, (keeping your car safe), rather than a junk storage container.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Walk through the house with buyers eyes and a piece of paper (maybe even a clipboard). Starting at the front door, go through the house room by room making notes of what needs improving. This way you have the start of a project plan.
  
• Don't get more overwhelmed.
  This might happen at the thought of decluttering your old home, so you end up procrastinating and not doing anything about it.
  You may already be overwhelmed with your clutter. Don’t increase this by thinking you have to get rid of it all in one day.
  Pick one project for each of the weekend days, a project you are sure you can complete. Before you know it, you should begin to see your table surfaces, floor space and begin to make your make your house sellable.
  
• If you have a team, use it. 
  If there are other people in your home besides you, every person in your household should be responsible for certain parts of the project.
  Split up tasks between you and your spouse. If you have kids, give them tasks and insist they do those to contribute to the family goal. 
  It's amazing how much time could be saved when good teamwork is put in action. If necessary, hire outside help, or ask a relative or neighbour to assist.
  
• Work expands to fit the time allotted. 
  Never schedule your time according to how much time you have available. Instead, schedule your time according to how long a particular project or task should actually take. Just because you have 3 hours, doesn't mean it should take you three hours to do something that should only take an hour or so. You'll get a lot more done if your deadlines are set properly.
  
• Give yourself a plan.
  How much will you accomplish, and how well will you accomplish it all, without a plan? Make sure that you don’t jump from one thing to the next with absolutely no plan. You'll end the day both exhausted and unfulfilled, and most likely you'll have a bunch of unfinished projects.
  Instead, give yourself a written plan. Make a To Do list each evening for the next day. Follow it closely throughout the day. Cross things off as you finish them.
  At the end of each day, look at all the things you crossed off your list and rejoice in everything you have accomplished--then relax and enjoy your evenings!
  
• If the weather is particularly fine, a project might include some gardening. Get rid of those weeds, do some trimming of overgrown shrubs, maybe even plant some annuals in the front garden to improve the “curb appeal”.

At the end of the weekend, your house might not be ready for viewers just yet, but you will have made a huge step in the right direction. Just make sure that you keep up what you have achieved to this point so when the next free weekend comes around, you don’t have to start all over again.