Wimbledon Newsie Community Partner Denisa Szemanova shares her expert tips on preparing your home for viewing

We are going to discuss the things you need to do to prepare your home for viewing so that you can sell it in the shortest amount of time at the offer price.

The first thing to focus on are any small maintenance issues that you are aware of with your home – the kinds of DIY jobs that you have been putting off. For example, chipped paving, clogged gutters etc. you may not even notice them anymore, but buyers will and when buyers walk through your property they will start itemising all these little maintenance jobs and the entire perception of your home changes quickly. Buyers always tend to overestimate the cost of repairs so the more of these little deferred maintenance items that you can take care of now, the better.

The next thing to do is to declutter so your home will immediately feel larger to prospective buyers. Try to declutter as much as you possibly can, it is actually very hard to over declutter! If you have a garage or an attic or storage space, start boxing all the little items up then put them away until you move into your new home when you will be able to take out all those little knickknacks and treasured decorations.

Dark rooms are not very appealing, so it is advisable to find ways to make the home as bright as possible. If you have very dark curtains open them up or even replace them with lighter curtains. If you have a dark carpet in a room again I would consider replacing it with a much lighter coloured carpet or even a light coloured rug on top of the carpet. When you have viewings I always recommend that you leave your blinds and curtains open and let as much natural light into the home. It's also recommended that you leave at least one light on in every room for that viewing just to make the rooms feel brighter.

Next I want you to ask yourself when was the last time you updated your kitchen, your bathroom, your floors, your hardware like the door handles and all your electrical outlets and fire places - because this is what buyers are going to be looking at when they come to the property and once again they may start overestimating the costs for updating these items. I would say that if your kitchen or bathroom has not been updated within the last 20 years, even though they may be perfectly serviceable - I would strongly consider investing a little bit of money in those areas to bring them up to modern standards.

Kerb appeal is becoming more important – what your prospects set eyes on when they first walk up to your property. Typically, when they see your home online the very first image that they're going to see is the front of your house, and most people make snap judgements based on first impressions. So, a freshly painted exterior and tidy front garden will help you secure a better house price. Now you don't have to do anything really over the top just try to do whatever you can to make that initial impression of your home, as pleasant as possible e.g.  a bit of landscaping, mow the lawn, trim the hedges, pressure wash the driveway etc.

The last task is also one of the hardest things to do i.e. de-personalise your home and take down all your personal family photos. When a buyer walks through the property they need to be able to envision themselves in your home, and they need to imagine their TV and their couch and their furniture in it. When they come in and they see all these family photos of another family living in that property, it absolutely destroys that image in their mind.

I'll admit it's even a little awkward for me, like I'm invading somebody else's personal space, you don't want to. You don't want to portray that feeling to any potential buyer, so I know this is hard but I want you to take down all your family photos, all the photos in your house of you, your husband, your kids, your grandkids, and I want you to very delicately box those up in a box and stick them away in a closet, just for a few months until you're fully moved into your new home. Once you're fully moved in that can be one of the first boxes that you unbox, but while you're selling your home I want you to take down all your personal family photos.

There are many steps to selling your property and preparing your home is just one of them in a much larger and complex transaction. With the right real estate agent on your side, you will know what’s going on every step of the way and have a trusted adviser to guide you through to the end. My team and I at Keller Williams have been blessed to help hundreds of people sell their home in the last few years so if you are thinking of moving give me a call on: 44 7703 415576 or drop me an email at: denisa.szemanova@kwuk.com