If you are trying to sell your home, the most common property renovation advice would be to create street appeal.  If your home looks attractive from the street, people who want to buy a home will always be interested in looking further. If it looks unattractive on the outside, it won’t matter how pristine the inside is, people won’t want to look at it.

Here are some more tips for selling your home.

• Most real estate agents would tell you to get all the yard cleaned up, with new flowers and shrubs in the garden.
• Keep the lawn mowed neatly.
• Scrub the outside of the walls if they look a bit mouldy or dingy and you can’t afford to paint it. This will give it a fresh look.
• Paint the outside window frames, the front door and the gate to enhance the look.

• Add some pretty flower pots to the front patio or doorway.
• Make sure there are no dog’s bones, old shoes or kid’s clutter on the lawn on showing day.
• Take out all the clutter from inside the house to make it appear more spacious. Things like small side tables with knick-knacks on them, smallish mats, shelving units you don’t really need and the kids toy boxes can all be removed.
  
• Wash down the walls and windows and vacuum the floor and carpets.
• Wash the curtains to make them look fresh – replace them if they look old and limp.
• Have fresh flowers or even fake ones on the kitchen cupboards – and clear off everything else.
• Hang new towels and tea towels in the bathroom and kitchen.
• People will open cupboards when they are being shown through a house, even if you are still living in it. Make sure yours are not cluttered with stuff, especially obviously old stuff.
• If your doona cover is looking a bit tatty, buy a new one and pillow cases to go with it.
• If you have a cat, consider purchasing a covered litter tray to help contain the smell you probably don’t even notice now, but non-cat people will.
• Make sure everything works as it should. Taps should not drip and cisterns should never leak. Windows and doors should be easy to open and shut and all the lights, fans and air conditioner should turn on and go without squeaking.

So basically, you are making sure that your house works the way it should and that it looks cared for and attractive.  When potential buyers see that your home is obviously well-maintained, they won’t suspect that there will be any hidden faults either, so don’t disappoint them. This will put them in a buying mood.