Preparing Your Home for Sale

Start with the photos, not the property

The first viewing of your home happens on a phone screen, not at your front door. Property portals like Property24 show thumbnail images before anything else. If your listing photos are dark, cluttered, or shot on a phone, you lose buyers before they ever contact an agent. Professional photography is not a luxury — it’s the single highest-leverage thing you can do before going to market.

Declutter — ruthlessly

Buyers need to picture themselves living in your home. Personal items, excess furniture, and visual clutter make rooms feel smaller and harder to imagine in. Before photography and before viewings:

• Pack away personal photographs and collections
• Remove excess furniture to make rooms feel larger
• Clear kitchen and bathroom countertops
• Tidy gardens, garages, and outbuildings — buyers look everywhere

What to fix — and what not to bother with

Not every repair is worth doing before a sale. Focus on visible defects that create doubt in a buyer’s mind:

• Worth doing: Leaking taps, cracked tiles, broken hinges, damp stains, chipped paint in main living areas, broken light fittings
• Usually not worth doing: Full kitchen or bathroom renovations — you rarely recover the cost in the sale price

The goal is to remove objections, not to show buyers your taste. Neutral, clean, and maintained beats trendy and freshly renovated.

Kerb appeal matters

Buyers form an opinion before they get out of the car. Mow the lawn, edge the driveway, wash the front face of the house, and make sure the entrance feels welcoming. If your exterior photos don’t look inviting, click-through rates on portals drop significantly.

For viewing days

Open windows beforehand, ensure every light is on, remove pets, and leave the house during the viewing if you can. Sellers who hover make buyers uncomfortable and shorten viewings. Let the agent do their job.