How to make your home stand out during peak season

How do you stop people from scrolling past your property or walking on by in the street? Let’s look at specific ways to catch people’s attention and entice them to book a viewing.

Don’t underestimate the value of kerb appeal

When you’ve owned a property for years, it can be easy to focus on all the ways you’ve enjoyed the interior, such as the light-filled kitchen and open-plan layout. But try to cast your mind back to your very first impression of the exterior. What did you like and dislike? 

Put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer and look for opportunities to enhance the outside appearance, whether it’s small adjustments or a more complex project. 

For example:

• How does the front door look? Do you want to repaint it a fresh colour, like yellow or soft blue? Or else simply do some cleaning? Wipe the door with mild soap and warm water, and sweep away any debris below.
• Can you add a hanging basket or two? For example, fuchsias make for a vibrant greeting for visitors. Just be careful of late-Spring frost, and regularly feed, water and deadhead them. 
• If you’ve got a front garden, is there room for improvement? Maybe this is just making friends with your lawnmower and trimmer, or else some enthusiastic trips to the garden centre.
• On the day of the photographs and for each viewing, you might wander outside to pick up any stray litter on the pavement and street.
• Can you tuck your bins away? Leave them neatly to one side? When your viewings fall on bin days, it can be worth returning them to their tidy positions.

Deep clean your carpets

There’s a reason why the concept of Spring cleaning has been around since ancient times. After long winters of people hunkering down indoors, most houses yearn for fresh air and a good scrub, whether that’s banishing muddy boot marks or just stray dust. And from a buyer’s point of view, fresh carpets are not only pleasing in their own right, but suggest that the whole property has been well cared for.

If you don’t want to hire a professional cleaner, look in your kitchen cupboard for products like baking soda, distilled white vinegar and table salt. Or head to your supermarket for specialist shampoos and other products. Here’s Saga’s advice on deep cleaning your carpets.

Go for light and airy Springtime vibes

As sunshine pours through your windows, how about decluttering your home? Creating clear surfaces and extra space will help your visitors to imagine living there. Although there’s no fixed rule for how many personal possessions to tuck away from sight, here are some ideas:

• In the kitchen, try to leave your worktops mostly clear of items and make sure your appliances are looking their best. The kitchen is one of the most important rooms for shaping impressions, so spend plenty of time preparing this space. And how about adding some flowers? A pot of daffodils or tulips can look pretty and scent the air.
• In the bathroom(s), scrub and clean from top to bottom. Again, potential buyers are likely to focus on these spaces and will value bathrooms in good condition. Launder your towels before viewings and tidy away your personal products to create clutter-free sinks.
• In the living room, you want an inviting space where visitors can picture themselves relaxing. If you have lots of trinkets and photographs, consider hiding at least a few. Similarly, remove stray items that take up space or pull focus from the room itself.

Walk around your whole property, considering how to present your home in the best light. Sometimes this is rearranging furniture and repainting walls. Other times it’s the DIY jobs you’ve been putting off for years! For more ideas, check out this post on sprucing up your home for Springtime.