A good first impression is the most crucial part of buying a house. As a seller, it is vital to present your home in its best possible light to prospective buyers. 

You don’t need to spend a huge budget on cleaning and staging your property. Follow these tips for a quicker, cheaper, and easier way to get your house looking its best.

1. Cleaning 

Get your house in pristine condition. You’re going to want to clean your home as thoroughly as possible to present it nicely. Dust, hoover, and wash all of the walls, ceilings, and floors. 

Don’t forget to clean the less obvious parts of your house that you wouldn’t typically include in your routines, such as lampshades, windows, and faucets. Why not go the extra mile and give the appliances a thorough polish too. 

If there are any lingering smells in your house, you want to be sure to air out the property or invest in air fresheners. Foul odors can be particularly off-putting to a prospective buyer so keep those windows open. 

If there are more persistent smells, like tobacco smoke, for example, then a more stringent method is required. Vinegar and baking powder are brilliant natural forces to remove smells. 

Start by using vinegar to wash your walls and hard surfaces. If the smell continues to loiter, try putting pots of baking powder around the room or boiling a pot of vinegar on the stove. The baking powder or vinegar should soak up any remaining smells leaving the house smelling fresh.

2. Sprucing 

Once your house is spic and span, it’s a good idea to spruce it up to present the property in the best possible light. Getting your house looking good can be done quite simply. A fresh lick of paint can take a room from drab to glowing. 

Using neutral colors rather than bright as it is often cheaper than other paints and does not distract buyers from the home itself. The same goes for keeping artwork simple. 

When buyers look around a house, they want to envision how they might make it their home rather than see how you live. Keeping your decor plain and innocuous will help them to see the building’s potential. 

It is also wise to remove any personal identifiers, such as family photographs or children’s drawings. Whilst they might give the house a homely family feel, it alienates the potential buyer from envisioning the property as their own. 

However, you don’t want your home to be too neutral. It is important that you still highlight the attractiveness of the house. So get rid of that old, decrepit ladder that has been sitting in your shed for the last decade. Consider revamping and recycling the ladder into a bookshelf to stylize the home and show how you can cleverly utilize the space.

3. Staging 

Staging is a lucrative business that offers your house’s potential to prospective buyers. Styled homes sell three times as quickly as those that are not. However, you don’t need to pay someone to stage your house with new furniture and artwork; there are many simple techniques you can do yourself to improve your home’s aesthetic. 

Importantly, flood your house with light. A well-lit room can give a much more positive impression than a shadowy one, as well as make it appear roomier. 

Place potted plants around the house. Take particular care when placing them — if you want the beautiful bay window to stand out, put a pretty plant on the sill to emphasize the feature. Just make sure the plants are in good health. 

Don’t neglect the outside of the house. The home’s exterior is an essential feature for making an excellent first impression so follow a stringent guide to cleaning the outside of our home. 

Keep the grass and plants well-maintained, and if possible pet-friendly, and thoroughly wash the paving stones or deck, and maybe think about giving the outside of the house a fresh lick of paint to make it shine. 

You now know the basic tips for sprucing up your house ready for sale. A clean, well-presented home can sell quickly for a higher value than if you were to do nothing. 

If you are short of time, you might want to hire professional help to clean or put a little less effort into the staging. However, as long as you pay careful attention to the front of the house, your buyers are sure to leave with an excellent first impression.