Ready to sell the house? Not quite! If you want to get the most out of your property sale, here are a few changes you can make around the house. We’ve gathered some local experts to give you the top six ways to increase the value of your home before you sell.

Set the Stage

One of the most important things to remember when staging your house is that you’re not decorating for your personal taste, but for potential buyers. Let your personal quirks shine, but remember the type of buyers that will be looking at your house. Is it a young family? A retired couple? An investment buyer? How your house will be staged will drastically change when you take this into consideration. If you’re concerned about space, Anthea from Homebase has a few tips. Create space in a small room by raising furniture off the floor where possible. Large mirrors can also create depth in a pokey room. Although rugs are a great way to ground furniture, they can be cumbersome in a smaller room, so best to avoid them if you’re staging a small space. How your house will look in photos is also very important. Avoid dark colours that will make photos appear flat and use more neutral, lighter colours – this is also a great way to create space. Some funky splotches of colour will help create a personal touch, which you can include with pillows, artwork, and cute decor like vases.

Change dated light fittings with LED lights

Replacing your halogen bulbs with LED downlights might seem like a costly hassle, but in fact, the amount of money and hassle you save in the long run vastly outweighs this. According to Home LED, LED lights are significantly more energy efficient, safer, and hassle free than halogen bulbs, which will no doubt add some value to your home. Not only do they cut down the power bill by a lot, they also look tres chic, which will no doubt impress potential buyers when it comes to open homes!

Switching out curtains with blinds

No longer the annoying, cumbersome, dusty things they used to be, blinds are overtaking curtains as the preferred way to shade homes. Blinds now come in a seemingly endless array of styles and types, which can make it even harder to choose the right ones for your house. Home Vision Blinds Ltd. have some awesome tips to make it a little easier. Roller blinds are usually the most popular option for people as they easy to use and maintain. They come in a range of colours no matter what your interior decor is, and can easily be customised for different window sizes. If your house tends to get a bit nippy during winter, thermal roller blinds make the perfect solution. On the other hand, if your house gets too hot during summer, transparent roller blinds are also a great option for both shade and a view. You can even have both! If you like things a little more traditional, venetian blinds are also a great way to shade your home.

Getting your carpet professionally cleaned

It goes without saying that a dingy, dirty carpet won’t go far in terms of winning potential buyers over when it comes to selling time. Therefore, getting your carpet professionally cleaned is yet another easy but essential step in getting the best return on investment when it comes to putting your house on the market. Although you can do it yourself, as the professionals have much more advanced equipment and cleaning products, it’s usually best to leave this one to the big guns. Your carpet will not only look fantastic, but will also assure buyers that their new home will be allergen and dust free!

Getting your house painted

There’s nothing like a new lick of paint to give your home a refresh. You can bring in professional painters to do it for you, but if you’d prefer to do it yourself, Go Day 1 Painting have a few tips. Do a test run before you commit to the colour and type of paint you’ve chosen, as colours will often seam lighter when applied to large areas then when on a colour swatch. Whether you’re giving the exterior or interior of your home a facelift, sanding and priming are highly recommended to enhance the final finish, as well as reducing the amount of paint needed to conceal blemishes and marks. Quite possibly the best reviewed painters Auckland has, they also recommend that when it comes to exteriors, wet conditions will prolong drying time (or can even damage the final finish), so ensure you’ll be painting in good weather to make the most out of your home’s new coat!

Landscaping

Giving the yard a little tidy up can make all the difference too! Kate the Gardener has a few landscaping suggestions for making the front garden look spick and span. When weeding, focus on areas where the eye falls on first – that way there’s no need to weed out the entire garden! Clearing walkways and thoroughfares are also super important. A green, tidy lawn also makes for a great selling point, so if your lawn needs a bit of attending to, pick up some spring feeding and weed control products. Edible plants like strawberries also add a homely touch to your garden, so if you have the room, pop some around for buyers to snack on while they wander around on open home days. For photos, it’s the same as it is inside: pops of colour make all the difference! Place a few colourful plants around that will breathe some life into your yard.

And that’s it! Hopefully these suggestions will have you celebrating come auction day. To get the most out of your upgrades, use the best quality and most environmentally friendly products possible. If you’re unsure, always ask an expert! Most of all, have fun. It’ll show your buyers as they walk through the doors just how much love and effort that’s been put in, which will translate into love for your home on their part.

Ever wondered about whether you should engage a professional stylist to stage your home before selling? Here are four things the Homebase team thinks you need to know that will help you make that decision.

1. Plan to buy and plan to sell

When most of us purchase a home, we do a lot of planning beforehand. We explore different suburbs and decide where we would like to live. We research the market to determine how much we should be paying for a house. We trawl the internet for suitable properties and visit open homes. All this, because property is a large investment and we want to make the best decision. And yet, when it comes time to sell and realise the profit on that investment, we can be far more relaxed.

At Homebase, our recommendation is, make the most of selling your house by having a plan; a plan that begins the day you take possession of the property. For instance, why wait until you decide to sell before doing those major renovations or painting jobs? Why not enjoy your investment while you live there rather than just getting it looking great for someone else to move into?

Have a plan. Know when you are going to sell and start working towards that date early. Renovate the parts of your home that add value but do it early so that you can enjoy them for a while.

2. Selling a property costs money

If you’re serious about selling, look at your property with a buyer’s eyes. Perhaps have a friend look over the property and tell you what areas they think need a bit of a spruce up. Think about aspects of your property that you may not usually notice; like gardens, painting, furniture settings.

As you do this keep one thing in mind, “You have to spend money to make money.” Doing all those little jobs that will excite a potential buyer may not be cheap, but do them well and do them right, and you will recoup the money spent many times over.

Once again, the key is to have a plan.

• Work out how much you can afford to spend.
• Make a list of the things you would like to improve around your property.
• Ask for quotes from the necessary tradespeople.
• Create a timeline of what work you will do and when.

Remember, your goal – it’s not just to sell your property – it’s to sell your property for a good price in what can be a highly competitive market. Take time and spend some money now, and you will make it back on the day it sells.

3. Make the decision to stage your property early and make it a priority

One thing you can do that will add to the marketability and value to your home is to stage your property so that it has a homely and spacious feel when perspective buyers visit – but this is a decision you need to make early.

Sometimes people say to me, “I’m going to have a go at selling my property without staging first. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll have a go with staged furniture.” I immediately point out the crucial mistake they are making.

You see, when a prospective buyer visits your property, they will usually make up their mind very quickly – perhaps within minutes, or even seconds, of walking inside. This decision will be based on how the property feels to them; does it feel homely; does it feel like a place they would feel comfortable in? And, once that perspective buyer decides “no”, it will be very difficult to persuade them to return.

In other words, you get one shot. Maximise your chances and have your home looking its absolute best right from the day it goes on the market.

4. Staging the property yourself doesn’t work

Why do we go to a doctor when we are sick? Why do we ask a mechanic to look at our car or an electrician to wire our home? It’s because when it comes to a specialist task, we want an experienced specialist to perform it.

The same can be said of staging a property. The simple reality is, all of us have talents and things we are good at; for most of us, creating style in a property in a way that gives it a spacious and inviting look, is not one of them. At Homebase we recommend you call in the experts!

• With the Homebase team, we bring more than just expertise.
• We have access to furniture and accessories that are unavailable to most people.
• We have an eye for detail that will ensure the right colours, the correct furniture size and proportions, the right artwork to complement your home.
• We are able to stage an average family home in just half a day.

The saving you make on time and personal stress saved, and the peace of mind a professional styling team brings, is worth every cent.

At Homebase, we believe having your home professionally styled in preparation for selling is a wise investment, especially when it’s part of a larger marketing plan. The relatively small cost can result in a great selling price.

A HOME LIKED IN WINTER MEANS A HOME LOVED IN SUMMER!

Here are the ‘HOMEBASE Top 5 Reasons to Sell your Home in Winter’:

1. Winter is a great time to sell, and there is a huge pool of buyers, only with less competition! Why wait till spring where you’ll be competing with all of the other properties on the market?

2. Cosy fireplaces, warm home baking, fresh brewed coffee and mood lighting – all of these factors will appeal to a buyers senses and create an ambient setting on those moody winter days, which is an atmosphere hard to reproduce during summer!

3. This time of the year is more likely to bring out the genuine and serious buyers that won’t give you the run around! If a buyer can see a properties potential in the winter, and fall in love with the property, then you know you have a winner!

4. Agents have fewer listings during winter, so they have more time to focus on your property. Another bonus is that there are fewer holidays and long weekends during winter, so your open homes are more likely to capture a wider audience.

5. It is cheaper to stage during winter! Dress it up! Get in the fabulous team from HOMEBASE to enhance the not-so-appealing aspects of your home. Winter styling techniques such as warm colours and textures will increase both the properties online and open home appeal.

As part of the Great Guide Dog Online Auction, Homebase is auctioning off a 3 bedroom homestaging package for a five week period, in the Auckland area. RRP $2,895.00. This is such a great cause, so please check out the auction!