Many people have found it harder to sell their house recently, so if you’re keen to get your house sold in 2009, then you may need to implement a few extra tips and tricks to help boost its selling potential.

1. Try and identify any areas that may put buyers off, like clutter, particular interior decoration or an unusual way of organising a room. A fresh pair of eyes may help.

2. Be prepared to make changes if you really want to sell your house. It doesn’t need to be drastic or cost a fortune, but you do need to make an effort.

3. Clear out all your clutter. If you’ve not got immediate storage space available, see if you can store items in a friend’s garage or use a self-storage facility.

4. It’s fine to decorate rooms to your taste when you’re living in a house, but if you’ve got strong colours or unique decorations, then they may need toning down when you’re selling. Neutral colours are a safe bet and a quick lick of paint can work wonders.

5. Likewise, it’s fine using rooms for different purposes when you’re living there, but when you’re selling they work best presented in a more functional manner. So move out the sofa bed from the conservatory, reclaim the study and present rooms to buyers as they could be used.

6. Make sure your home is well lit, especially on dark winter days. Open the curtains and blinds, put some lights on and swap low wattage bulbs for brighter bulbs to improve the lighting.

7. Get dusting! Clean all the key areas, but don’t forget things like light switches, skirting boards and lampshades, where buyers may notice errant spots of dust.

8. Consider having an open day or weekend, where you solely concentrate on showing prospective buyers around. If you’re going for this option, you can even produce your own buyers pack with more details and information to entice buyers.

9. First impressions count, so tidy up outside your house too. Give the front door a lick of paint, pop some potted plants by the front door and make sure the approach to your house is clean and welcoming.

10. Not all buyers love pets, so consider moving pets out of the house whilst you’re showing buyers around.

The ultimate aim should be to make your home stand out from the crowd for the right reasons, and be a property that people remember – and hopefully buy!

For more advice, take a look at our guide to preparing your home for sale.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.