It may come as a surprise that being full of personality is almost never a key selling feature of your home — in fact the opposite is true, which is why we've compiled these real estate selling tips for sellers in Adelaide's western and coastal suburbs.
If your furnishings and décor are strongly stamped with your taste you risk alienating buyers who would otherwise have been willing to pay a good price for your property.
Your home is your castle, but what you love about it because you consider it inviting, cool or eclectic, for example, can make it seem strange or uncomfortable to others.
What do property buyers like?
The properties that have the strongest appeal to potential buyers are those in which they are immediately able to envisage their families and their belongings.
In fact buyers will overlook minor shortfalls in homes if they feel comfortable in them from their first inspection.
Conversely, every flaw will seem magnified if they can’t get past colour schemes, decorating styles and furnishings that reflect a personality foreign to theirs.
Along with decluttering your home physically before sale, you need to declutter it visually.
Your McGrath Real Estate agent’s experience and objective eye will enable you to identify areas that need attention.
Real estate selling tips: How to visually declutter
Here are some starting points to help you 'visually declutter' your home so that its personality makes way for a better price.
- Repaint strongly coloured feature walls in lighter neutral tones is one way to tone down the display of personality.
- Remove bold wallpaper and paint walls in those same tones.
- Avoid repainting your whole house in pristine white, thinking it will look fresh and clean; instead it can seem harsh and clinical.
- Pare back your décor during the sales process if it currently makes a strong statement in style or colours.
- Store quirky collectables and other items indicative of your personal passions out of sight.
Two other blind spots that many of us get used to in day to day life but that grab the attention of buyers immediately, are teenagers' rooms and rumpus rooms.
If your teenagers’ rooms are filled with music or sporting posters and memorabilia it may be hard for others to see alternative uses for those rooms.
Likewise, if your rumpus room is a riot of electronic paraphernalia, games and sporting gear, the buyer wanting a serious media room may have a hard time imagining it as one.
Your home is a display home, not a castle, while on the market
Think of your home as a display home for the sale period—it should appeal to the widest possible audience and, within practical limits, show little evidence of being lived in.
There is no doubt that the lifestyle opportunities in Adelaide’s western and coastal suburbs lend themselves to rich lives and plenty of memories.
You can rely on the expertise of your McGrath Real Estate agent to help you attract buyers keen to create their own memories in your home, so you can move on to personalise a new one.