7 Tips for Selling Your Home ...

1. Price Realistically

One of the most important tips for selling your home is that it needs to be priced realistically. If your house is too expensive for the area or people can buy similar houses more cheaply, yours is going to languish on the market unsold. Whatever you think it is worth, it is in reality only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay for it. And be aware of price falls - it may have been theoretically worth a certain amount a year ago, but the market may have changed since.

2. Tidy Home

Make the effort to clean your house for the photos and for viewings. A messy state is going to make it difficult for viewers to look at the rooms objectively. They may also wonder what else is wrong with the house - if you can't be bothered to clean the house, what else have you let slide? Are there structural problems or damp?

3. Remove Clutter

You might love your family photos and ornaments, but too many possessions are a distraction, and make it seem too much like 'your' house (it still is, but they want to live in their house, not yours). It also looks like there is insufficient storage. And don't overcrowd the rooms with furniture, as they make the rooms look small.

4. Stage the Rooms Properly

You might prefer eating in the kitchen, and have turned the dining room into a games room, but your buyers will probably not want to do the same. It can give the impression that the house is too small if rooms are 'missing.' Stage the rooms as most people would use them.

5. Do Minor Repairs

This is a good time to fix all those small repairs that need doing around the house, so that it will give a good impression to your viewers. As with a messy house, loose curtains and torn wallpaper may make them think there are problems with the house.

6. Don't Renovate

On the other hand, it's not worth doing major renovations to try to clinch that sale. It may be a waste of time and you probably won't make back the money you spent. If the house needs a lot of work, market it for a buyer who's prepared to take on a renovation project, and adjust the price accordingly. You can spend thousands on a kitchen, only for the buyer to replace it with one they like better.

7. Tone down Your Taste

There's nothing wrong with decorating your home in a quirky manner to suit your own taste, but when you want to sell it you need to 'depersonalise' it. Buyers aren't buying your taste, but their future home, so a house painted in every color of the rainbow isn't likely to appeal. To get that sale, tone down the colors and look of the house.

To make the house more attractive to buyers, try to let go of the fact that it is your house and see it through their eyes. They're looking for a house to live in and make their own. What would your ideal home be like?