From successful viewing to successful sale
Welcome to the second part of our 10 Top Tips for selling your home successfully. Here are five more great pointers on what to do to make sure you’re ready to move home in 2024, or any other point after that, adding to the first five tips we’ve shared before.
This quintet of handy hints comes from BPK Estate Agents’ Manager and Valuer Piers Morton, based on his many years of experience of selling homes successfully in Carlisle, North Cumbria and the Scottish Borders. Just what you’d expect from BPK, your home move experts.
Last time, Piers focussed on preparing your home, ready for it to be on the market. This time, we’re moving onto the moment when you start to get potential buyers coming through your front door. And taking you all the way to the bit everyone wants more than anything – completing the sale, bidding goodbye one last time to your house and heading off to your new home.
So, here goes. Everything you need to make a great impression in any viewing.
1. Before your viewing arrives, don’t forget to pop your lights and lamps on and light open fires or woodburning stoves, especially in colder times of the year or gloomy weather,. Buyers will make their minds up quite quickly and decide if it’s the house for them. So make sure your home feels warm and bright from the minute they walk in, especially if it’s a cloudy, dull day.
2. It’s not just our eyes which help us pick a home. You can also create a great first impression by arousing buyers’ sense of smell. A clean and tidy house with a fresh fragrance throughout will make them feel welcome and put them at ease. And don’t forget the classics as well. Warm bread or a freshly-brewed coffee will also bring a smile to buyers’ faces.
3. Be flexible with viewings and as reasonable as you can with timings. We can also accompany a viewing if you prefer, and we’ll always try to ensure you have reasonable notice so that you can spruce things up without too much of a rush. But don’t worry too much about the time this takes. Once you’ve done the main tidy up prior to your property launch, you’ll soon find yourself in a quick routine to have your home ready for potential buyers in no time. And also, make things easy for potential buyers by finding certificates and guarantees you may have to certify some of the items you may be leaving or covering work you’ve had carried out. That will help you answer any questions which up during a viewing and it’ll also help speed things up for the conveyancing process – meaning you’ll be in your new home even quicker.
4. Once you’ve had an offer on your property, it’s always beneficial to be as flexible as possible with negotiations to get the best possible price with the buyer most likely to proceed, not just with the one which bids the most. We’ll be on hand to help at this stage to ensure you have a firm, secure offer which will carry through to exchange of contracts. At this stage, it’s then time to plan ahead for removals and get some quotes, although they’ll need to be flexible on dates. Your conveyancer will be on hand as well as your estate agent to help guide you through the legal process and keep you informed as this important stage is processed.
5. Looking ahead to your move and once you’ve secured a new property, it’s time to think about address changes. Make a list of all the potential companies and services to update, especially banks and utility companies. It’s safe to change everything once you’ve exchanged contracts, ensuring TV services and broadband are booked in good time. And finally, don’t forget to take meter readings on the day you move out. You don’t want be paying someone else’s bills when you’ve moved!
Ready to sell your home? Why not ask Piers and the team for a free valuation? Get in touch with us on 01228 888999 option 2 or drop Piers an email on
