Struggling to sell a house is a source of frustration. Buying and selling are stressful at the best of times but when your home’s been on the market for a while and no one’s made an offer, it can feel like it’ll never sell.
There are of course outside factors why your house hasn’t been snapped up – your estate agent has probably blamed a slow market and said houses simply aren’t selling quickly at the moment.
This may well be true but perhaps the reason your house isn’t selling is closer to home. So close, it’s inside, in fact.
A good estate agent, such as Balgores, will be honest with you and let you know if it’s your decor letting you down. It’s in your agent’s interest to get a good price for you, as that means more commission for them.
So if your living room is letting you down, let’s have a look at how you can stage it to make it look its best.
Carpet
If your carpet’s seen better days or it’s covered in a bright, busy pattern, replace it with a new one in a neutral colour. You might not want to splash out on a new carpet you’re not going to use but the investment will be worth it, trust us.
Neutral walls
As with the carpet, if you’ve stamped your personality on your walls with bright, busy wallcoverings, paint over them with a neutral colour.
You may hate the thought of white or magnolia walls but you need to appeal to as many people as possible and it’s more likely someone will be put off by pink polka dot wallpaper than a magnolia wall.
Sofa
Do you love your sofa? Have you had it for years and it’s the comfiest thing ever? If so, it’s probably the scruffiest, saggiest and shabbiest thing you have in your home and you need to get rid of it.
We know you don’t see the point of buying a new sofa now – you were going to wait until you’d moved and have a nice new sofa in your nice new house, we get it. But if you don’t want to put off potential buyers, replace your saggy old sofa now for a clean, stylish new one.
Books, photos and artwork
If you’ve got shelves and shelves full of books in your living room, pack them up until you move. Yes, we love books too and think they look great on shelves. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the same and all they’ll see is clutter.
Depersonalise your shelves and remove everything from them – yes, that means the photos of your kids, grandchildren and the family cat. Take them all down from the shelves and leave a couple of pot plants in their place.
As for the artwork, again, neutral is best, so if you’ve got some weird art on your walls, take it down and put up something neutral or a mirror. Mirrors are okay, you’ll be pleased to know. Actually, they’re better than okay – mirrors are great as they reflect light and make your room look bigger.
You can actually hire people to come in, take a look around your home and stage your living room for you. That’s probably overkill though and we’re sure you’re more than capable of doing it yourself. So, follow the advice above and fingers crossed you’ll get an offer on your property very soon.
