Moore & Partners Estate Agents Crawley can you make your home more saleable?

How can you make your home more saleable?

You only get one chance to make a first impression, not least when showing prospective buyers round your home, or an estate agent during the initial selling valuation.

And while it's tempting to focus on the inside of your property, remember that the exterior is equally important. Your home needs to sell itself from the moment prospective purchasers first see it, with 'kerb appeal.'

That might mean creating a grand entrance with a front door that's in keeping with your home's overall design, perhaps in oak for a natural look or with glazing panels to make more of a statement. Or perhaps it's time for a colour upgrade in modern shades for your doors and windows? Remember plants and flowers inject instant colour, too.

Think about the pathway your viewers will walk up. Are there cracks or other signs of wear? Consider using a pressure washer for a quick spruce-up, or replacing the concrete steps altogether.

If people are coming to view your property at dusk or after dark, porch or other outdoor lighting makes a bold welcoming statement.

Because it's your home, it's hard to be objective. Your estate agent should have plenty of advice when they do your house valuation. One tip is to try walking up to your property and viewing it as though for the first time. What is most noticeable? How clean are the windows - really? Are the bins out of sight? Is there any unsightly clutter lying around?

One ground-breaking study recently used eye-tracking technology to discover precisely what viewers are assessing when they look round a property.

Carried out by a home improvements firm, the study asked a number of house-hunters to view a potential new home while wearing eye-tracking glasses, and studied what caught their attention. More than a quarter (27%) of the focus was on furnishings and décor, while slightly less (24%) was taken up by studying clutter and mess. In contrast, the property's layout occupied just 4% of viewers' time.

The survey revealed female viewers found clutter most distracting - women focused on it for a sizeable 28% of the viewing, while men did so for 20% of the visit.

Men spent more time than women studying the features and structure of the grounds and building (32% as opposed to 22%), while personal items including décor, furnishings and photo frames grabbed female attention more (16% rather than 13%.)

Indeed, personal items like photos draw the attention of the viewer away from other, more important features of a room so should probably be tidied away. Only with a neutral background can viewers really see how they would make the place their own.

Outside features like the garden accounted for 22% of focus, and 17% of viewing time was spent gazing through windows.

So keep the garden tidy and its boundaries clear, and remember that not all your viewers' attention will be on the building and structural features, unless they obviously need fixing. Even small details like broken light switches can have a negative impact.

At Moore & Partners, we're a leading estate agent in Crawley offering a combined nine decades' experience in sales and lettings. So we're perfectly placed to advise on how to maximise your property's kerb (and interior) appeal before people start looking round. Talk to us today.