I sold my house in THREE hours!!! (How to sell a house)

Member Name: fionajm

Product:	How to sell a house
Date:	05/01/02 (2406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get to sell your home quickly

Disadvantages: might take a tinsey winsey bit of time - but well worth it!

House buying and selling ranks as one of the top stressors you can have in life. And as well as doing that this year I am getting married and changing jobs (I don't do things by halves!). I therefore needed to ensure that to do each of these tasks I had to be really practical.

I managed to sell my house in three hours. And you can do that too if you follow fionajm's easy steps....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 points to a happier exterior
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Firstly put yourself in their shoes...

Imagine you are going to view your house yourself and you have never seen it before. What do you do first? You go and have a look at the outside to see if it looks like it has potential to be your new home. So the first thing you need to do is check the outside of your house is as good as it can be. These are the areas to watch out for:

i)Tiles - make sure any loose tiles are fixed, cracked tiles or fallen tiles may give the impression that a lot of work has to be done on your roof when that may not be the case.

ii)Guttering - Get all those nasty gunky things out, you know, the moss, the leaves, the sprouting bits of grass.

iii)Window ledges & frames - freshly paint the window ledges and make them seem looked after. Give the corners of the window ledges a gentle squeeze.. if they feel soft you may have rot. Solution- either replace or treat with a wood firmer & treater available from your local DIY store. This is the first area a surveyor will look at to see if there could be any rot problems throughout the house. Prevention is better than cure, ensure you get there first as you wouldn't like the sale to fall through.

iv)Brick work - do your walls need pointing? If they look like they have shifted a bit you may not have time to sort out the problem. Get a (reputable) builder round for a quote for re-pointing. If it is picked up as an issue wa
ive the quote at the solicitor/mortgage advisor and be prepared to bargain it into the price.

v)Window panes - cracked? It may be worth while getting them fixed. You can normally get an average pane fitted for £50-£70 and for the price of the house you may as well get it done. Remember most people would prefer to move into a house and have to do no work on it.

vi)Double glazing. This is the bain of my life. Our house had wooden double glazing and the glazing went misty and had condensation. Solution - a quick replacement from the local glazier and no one is the wiser (crafty me!).

vii)Garden - mow the lawn lazy people out there. You never know who is going to appear for a quick preview glance. Make sure the grass is cut, beds are weeded and paths are clear of leaves. For most people all this would be sorted in a weekend.

viii)Rubbish bin/wheelie bin - overflowing? Then get rid of the rubbish! There is nothing like a bad smell to put off a buyer. And keep it out of site, your guests will want to look at better things than that.

ix)Garden/house - keep it shut. Psychologically the house looks a safer place to be if everything is closed.

x)Porch light - if you are having an evening viewer then put the porch/ drive light on. This will make the purchaser welcome. Spare that electrical expense!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 points to a happier interior
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i) The hall - this is the first thing your guests will see so have the light on, even in the daylight hours. It is a well known fact amongst estate agents that if you put the lights on round the house then your guests will feel that you have nothing to hid... plus they are less likely to trip over and bang their heads!! Make sure everything tidy. Keys are hung up, you don't have a mountain of coats on coat hooks, bits of paper sticking out of that phone book you wanted to replac
e years ago. And vacuum especially if you have pets. Non pet owners can sniff out a smelly dog from miles away. Get that Glade freshner out! Touch of paint needed - go for it.

ii)The lounge/sitting room - plump the cushions on the couch if you have material and make them look fresh. Remember it may not be the furniture that you are selling but you are selling an ideal and most people have no imagination so you need to sell your house to them on a platter. Dust all round with fresh smelling wax. Open the windows for half an hour before they come round... I want to see freshness, airyness, smells of spring time!! Get those newspapers out of the way (even if it means in the boot of your car!)... and of course vacuum. Remember feng sui- have a path from the entrance to the room to the far corner. Get their eyes to sweep up the room. And no clutter, books on bookshelves you can thin out, and yes, put in the boot of your car (or loft/ grannies house/ whatever). Bit of wallpaper coming loose in the corner- well stick it up then. Mark on the wall- stick a picture over it.

iii)The kitchen - one of the most impotant places to be for us foodies. Sooo get those dishes washed and put away. Get the washing out of the machine and put away... we don't want any damp smells now do we!! Food splats- must not exist on walls, floors, ceilings. Wipe under the draining board and all the sides. Make things look clean. Again if you have pets move that dog/cat bowl away and make sure the water bowl doesn't have slobber all over it. Fresh flowers in the kitchen do it for me, especially daffodils in the spring time. Life is the essence of making people feel welcome.

iv) The dining room - Get rid of that clutter. Make sure nothing is hanging over chairs or games under the table. Put a nice centre piece in the middle of the table and give your guests something to look at, or maybe again some fresh flowers. Polish the table and the chairs.
Hoover well. I want to hear air, freshness, homeliness - without the clutter.

v)The bedrooms - did you change you sheets yesterday? Or even last week??? I don't care - change them again. Go for whites and creams to make the room lighter and more elegant. Pretend your house is a showroom and untouched by human hands. They don't want to know what you got up to last night! Make sure there is no clutter (its that word again!) on the dressing table- if needs be pop your bits and pieces in your drawers, afer all they won't be looking there. Built in wardrobe?? Tidy those close up and hang them properly then! Teenage son/daughter... decided to paint their room orange/blue/black (don't snigger, I did!).. then paint it cream. They won't be there for long (hopefully) so ignore their protests. It is your money after all!! Megadeath posters or I love Ronan Keating on the walls and windows- bribe the child to take them down with a dvd or something... it will be cheaper in the long run!!

vi)Bathroom - No one likes poo marks in the toilet. Get your marigolds on and do some scrubbing then put a toilet cleaner it it to make it look ever clean and sparkly. Clean that bath and shower out and get rid of any signs of mildew up the sides. Change your shower curtain if it is getting a bit grimey (B&Q do a plain white one for £5.99). If your toothbrushes are a bit mangled get fresh ones. Remember clean, fresh, showroom.

vii)Loft - not many viewers venture up to the loft unless it is converted but some do. Best bit of advice... make sure they don't break their neck. Check your ladder is safe and the loft entrance won't off load a pile of old books you stored there last century on your head when you open it up.

viii)Garage - Take your car out of the garage to make it look bigger. Sweep the floor and make it look tidy. Doesn't have to be spick and span but please make sure it is presentable! Tidy
your tools up and make sure your garage door isn't off its hinges or anything like that.

ix)Carpets - if your carpets are a bit rough and holey in places look round for a cheap and cheerful rug to cover up. What your viewers don't see won't hurt them, especially if they aren't buying the carpets and curtains.

x)Pets- if you have a pet such as a dog, tarantula, snake or equally anything else that someone may be fearful of then ask a friend to look after the pet for an hour while you look after the viewers. Remember you want them to come back again!!

So in a nutshell this is how I sold my house in three hours. By five hours I had 4 offers of the full price, and ended up selling it for more. All it took was a spot of paint, a few lights on to brighten the place up, a bit of foresight, and some nice fresh spring airy smells. Lovely!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So if you are selling your house or thinking about selling your house remember the old Greek saying... prevention is better than cure....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summary: