Up for discussion.

LOL... me too Mish, our Real Estate Agent suggested that i should look at getting into it....
We were constantly commended on our presentation of our home , by the agents and the prospective purchasers alike. We had open for inspections every weekend and between 3-5 visits every day it was on the market!!!

I think that a service such as this depends on the suburb that the home is in...
Some vendors are looking to get the best for their money and i thought that it could be presented to prospective vendors in two ways - 1. As a standard service that the real estate agent provides (incorporated into the % fee) or 2. An customised service that can be recommended by the real estate agent but the agreement would be directly with the vendor.



We spent around $4-5K getting our house ready for sale.



I would clean for about 1-2 hours each day to make sure the house was immaculate... On open for inspections, probably about 2-3 hours.
In my opinion, it is NOT a waste if you have plenty of potential buyers going through the house.....



I feel that you need to make the prospective buyer feel that they could move in and feel at home...It can be hard as different buyers look for different things when looking at homes, some look for open plan areas, some look for coziness, some look for great outdoor areas, some just look for dumps to renovate....



That's exactly what we did, I would definitely look for structural soundness, one that is free from rot, pests etc. One that is in a nice area or an area of prospective growth and ultimately return on investment. One that has potential to be what you want in a home... We bought our home, spent nearly 1/2 again on a renovation and sold it for a large profit...Yes it was in a popular suburb, but still we were happy with the result.

I think presentation pays off, ,get rid of the clutter, the fridge magnets, keep it simple and let the prospective buyers imagination run wild thinking of how many memories will be experienced in their future new home...

Maybe one day i'll get off my butt and look into it....maybe

How long did it take to sell your home P?

Not long I would guess! This is exactly what is needed to be serious about seeling your home.

Well done P.

Well they would be wrong ... its bloody hard work .

I wouldnt buy a house that looked uncared for ... I would be concerned that there were other aspects that had been neglected. I remember viewing a house once that was untidy and smelt like the owners teenage boy sneakers. No way would I buy that house.

LOL, our house was up for auction... we had offers after the first week. But we were told not to accept any of them. The week before auction we had 13 offers on the table, all of which knocked our socks off!!! Our agent said there was only usually 3 or 4 when selling a house prior to auction.
So our house was a novelty for them

Not complaining though. In all because it was an auction it took about 4-5 weeks.

The agents were lovely and VERY professional. But having them through so many times per day was frustrating. Especially around dinner time...

One time we had 13 people on the doorstep waiting to come through at 7.30pm at night... they had combined 2 families into the one timeframe....LOL

Mmmmm '90s country blue

First thing is, the place needs to be structurally sound. No major cracks, rising damp etc to spell out costly problems.

2nd thing...how old is old?. If the kitchen and bathroom hasn't been touched for 30+ years then that's major cost and a turn off.

Layout of the place is very important.

Bottom line is, if it can be renovated at a reasonable cost vs bulldozed and start again. You need to have a calculator in your head to work out the costs as you look at a place. I saw one place for auction in Ormond a month ago. The size of the block was very good. The kitchen and family room areas was reasonably new and nice. But it had no garage, the celings and wardrobes in all bedrooms needing changing. The bathroom was small.....all these things started to add up and me losing interest. The property did not meet the reserve price and so got passed in.

No surprises

Sorry, all been a bit busy!

All very good points mentioned, and good to see you are all on the ball with the preparation for re-sale. Which is why your homes sold fast.

Steve……you are a surprise, nice prep from you, and very mood provoking!

Paula, very nice kitchen…..you wouldn’t think it was the same house.

So why are so many people struggling to sell their house?

Not enough thought or grunt for the outcome?

100% spot on

Don't forget some of us look for the size of the walk in robe

We put our house on the market last February to allow us to buy where we are now building. Our home wasn't very old - only 6yrs old but we still remembered every thing that we had ever seen on lifestyle shows!!

We hired a storage shed and decluttered the home considerably. Made sure that all clothes / toys / baby items were packed away to the shed - if they weren't being used then they had to go!!

We scrubbed the house from top to bottom and made sure that it sparkled - in fact when we were interviewing real estate agents we went overboard so much that one made a comment on the overpowering smell of bleach so we were careful to not use any on the day on the open house.

My husband made sure that the yards were immaculate as well as the garage. We had built an amazing flatpak kitchen bench with cupboards / bar fridges underneath in the garage so we made sure that everything was packed away and the fridges were stocked with wine and beer. We also put the BBQ out to show that we had an external gas bayonet point. Made sure that the pool was crystal clear and put out the large umbrella up in the pool area so people could imagine themselves sitting in the pool area (it was gorgeous with a massive artist painted mural of a rainforest alongside real frangipani trees that were in full bloom!)

We put a new ceran cooktop in as the existing one was marked and nothing was budging the stains - the real estate agent was so sure that we would sell quickly that I was happy to go without using a cooktop for the duration of the sale period (made do with electric appliances!!). Picked one up on sale at Bing Lee for $600 and had my (retired) eleco of a Dad install it for me.

Went to one of the best patisseries here in town and picked up a mile high lemon meringue pie which I placed on the end of the breakfast bar in a glass cake dome. Also had the electric coffee percolator on brewing fresh coffee.

Bought two huge bunches of flowers - one which went into the kitchen / family eating area - the other in the formal dining area.

Made sure that all lights were on and all blinds / curtains open. Made sure that the home theatre was on and playing a kids' movie (was being sold as part of the home). Since it was middle of hot summer also made sure that the air conditioner was making the home lovely and cool.

We also made sure that our two fountains were on and burbling away.

Our home sold within 7days for the full price. We had two open houses and six second walk throughs - so all up with the new ceran cooktop, fresh flowers twice and three fancy cakes we probably spent $750 all up.

Then again it probably helped that our home was fairly newish and very understated (ie bland - cream walls / classic furnishings etc). Plus we had an excellent Real Estate Agent who pushed us to increase our sale price and told us to have confidence in him! In fact the home is going back on the market this week as the people have to move states for work and he has asked us to come and take a look to see if there is anything we would do / change to make sure that it sells quickly again.