How to make your home stand out for viewings

A property viewing is your opportunity to convince interested parties that they should make an offer on your home. The more people you manage to impress and make an offer, the more your home could potentially sell for. It’s a crucial step in the selling process for everyone, which is why we want to discuss some of the ways to get it right.

Pay attention to cleanliness and smell

Ensure the property is both clean and bright before any viewings. You can clean the property yourself or pay professional cleaners to do a deep clean in the days leading up to your first viewings. The cleanliness of the property makes a difference to its appearance, but it can also make the property smell nicer too.

These both contribute to the first impressions of prospective buyers. If you want the property’s smell to entice buyers, one of the older tricks in the book is to bake bread in the hours before the viewing. This is said to give the property a “homely” smell.

Should you stage your home for a viewing?

Home staging is where you borrow furniture or furnishings from a company to enhance the appearance of the property for marketing photos and viewings. It could be as simple as adding a few plants or completely furnishing a home.

The research suggests that staged properties do attract more prospective buyers to viewings, and around 75% of viewing attendees spend more time looking at staged properties. However, this is best considered on a case-by-case basis based on location and market conditions. Ask your agent for guidance in this area.

Work with your agent

It’s your agent’s job to sell your home for the best possible price in market conditions, but there are extra steps you can take to help them make a quicker and better sale. You can provide your agent with a list of things that are unique about your property that may not be obvious to the naked eye.

For example, you might tell them about your high-end and soft-close kitchen cupboards or hidden storage spaces. The agent can then show off these features at your property viewings to make sure prospective buyers are aware of these special features. Our estate agents will enquire about these types of features in advance so they’re never overlooked by buyers.

Bonus tip: Trust your agent to sell your home at a viewing. An owner’s presence can make prospective buyers feel obligated to inspect the property faster and not ask questions they want to ask.

Make the most of feedback

Our estate agents always ask the people who attend viewings for feedback in the days after. This allows us to get genuine feedback from prospective buyers to understand what people did and didn’t like about the property. We can then pass this information on to our clients, which may help make changes or improvements to secure a sale in the future.

Not all estate agencies ask for feedback, which we believe is a missed opportunity and not the best practice for clients. Speak to our team if you want to know more about our services to sell your property.