My friends don’t believe me but after years of selling and buying places, I don’t think I have another place left in me. So we have bought our future home in Antibes and are selling our Berlin apartment. Even with the current pandemic, people are looking and we have a wonderful 360 video tour for potential buyers. We also have time on our side. Friends have also asked for tips on how to best to sell a place. Aside from it being the look, size and location that a buyer is looking for, there are also some simple tips and tricks.

 

Clear & Clean

First impressions count! While this doesn’t mean someone will buy the place as they may have specific requirements, it is important to keep ‘stuff’ out of sight and to do a deep clean. We have viewed apartments where we have stumbled over shoes, bicycles and even a big wardrobe just at the entrance! Some places have had dishes in the sink and towels on the floor. If you read my other posts, you know that I follow Feng Shui practice and cleaning is like clearing old energy to allow the new Chi in.

 

There are some basic tips and tricks:

  • Go in to each room and clear out anything that doesn’t belong in that room or can be thrown away. It is therapeutic as you ideally only keep the items you need.
  • Put away toys, strange artwork and very personal photos.
  • Keep the kitchen and bathroom as clean and tidy as possible, even if it means shoving everything in a cupboard.
  • Put out fresh flowers, towels, soap but no, you don’t have to make coffee and bread!
  • Open windows before to let in fresh air and then shut just before unless the day is really hot or cold.
  • Try to reduce the furniture  – we sold a big chest of drawers beforehand as it was making the spare bedroom look small.
  • Clear surfaces, do the ironing and put it away.
  • Spray air freshener if you have animals and we always clean the cat litter just before the visit.

Repair & Repaint

We repainted the balconies recently. We were going to anyway for ourselves but it made a huge difference revarnishing the wooden boards and cleaning up the space. Paint or clean any marks on the wall and dust and vacuum. Don’t forget that some people are taller so it is worth cleaning that top shelf.

 

 

Call a Friend

I haven’t had to do this but have actually done it for others. Ask a kind friend to come over with a buyer’s eye and see what they see. Do you need to declutter, change old curtains, fix light bulbs and throw away that cracked vase. Take down any unusual artwork and put away ornaments. They mean something to you but not to the buyer. Your friend can diplomatically help.

Feng Shui Advice

If you are interested in Feng Shui, check out your Wealth sector and clean it. Put the most expensive things you can afford there and state that this is to bring in the wealth to sell your property. I have a small fountain there and a ‘golden plant’. I clean the area each week to make it fresh. You may also want to clean and activate your helpful people sector which is the opposite corner diagonally.

 

 

Don’t Take It Personally

You have cleaned the house or apartment and they come in for 10 minutes and leave. It is hard not to wonder what they didn’t like but it could be too small, too modern, too old-fashioned. They want an extra bathroom or as one woman said, the main road 15 minutes away could be too noisy! She was a writer and I have no idea why she didn’t look for something in a more isolated situation. Think of how you bought the place before. You would have viewed houses and apartments that either sang to you or didn’t. We all have a list of what we want to live in otherwise we would all live in beige houses with no character.