Self storage and selling your home
When it comes to the challenge of selling up and moving house, we here at The Store Room self storage company have dealt with more people who are going through the process than anyone else – with perhaps the exception of the estate agents! Therefore over the years our teams have come picked up many nuggets of simple but effective advice from vendors. I personally work at our Manchester self storage facility, and now that we are entering the peak moving months of 2014 I wanted to share some of my tips for the all-important task of preparing a home for viewings and a sale – and hopefully getting the price you wanted!
1. Don’t forget the outside
Lot’s of people spend so much time thinking about the inside of the property and how that looks that they forget about the frontage of the property – this is a mistake as this is the first thing that buyers will see. At the very least, make sure the grass is mowed and the driveway is swept. And don’t forget to leave a parking spot for the viewer.
2. Get all the little things done
If there are small jobs that you have been putting off now is the time to get them done – for example if you have a dodgy door handle or a cracked tile in the bathroom, get them sorted.
3. De-personalise the property
When getting ready for viewings, get rid of the family photos on the mantelpiece and your kids drawings stuck to the fridge. You want people coming in to imagine themselves living in the property, not imagine what its like for you living there.
4. Check every corner
Cobwebs can hide everywhere, but especially in corners of rooms, behind sideboards and chests of drawers – make you you check every one – both at ceiling and floor level.
5. De-clutter to give a greater feeling of space
By de-cluttering your home of excess furniture you can create a greater sense of space in the property – and more space generally means more value. Use a self storage unit to move excess furniture and other items out of the house and into a safe environment. Here at The Store Room a great number of our domestic customers use us for this reason – so much so that we’ve recently expanded our Leicester storage site to make more rooms available – as well as already having work completed at our Bradford and Leeds sites.
6. On the day itself
On the night before the viewing make sure you don’t cook your signature Chicken Jalfrezi and risk the smell lingering, and then on the day itself make sure you open all the blinds and curtains to let in as much light as possible.
7. Pets and children
Pets and children are difficult to control – so why not let them spend the day with a family member or friend!
If you have any tips of your own, please let us know by dropping it in the comments below!