How to Assess Your Home Before Selling

Look at Your Property Through a Buyer's Eyes Before Spending Money

If you're thinking about selling your home, one of the most useful things you can do before making any changes is to stop looking at it as your home and start looking at it as a buyer might. That's not always easy.

You've lived with the dripping tap, the mark on the wall, the crowded spare room and the garden that you'll definitely get around to fixing one day. After a while, you simply stop noticing them.

Buyers won't.

Before you start renovating, painting or spending money, I recommend taking a proper look at the entire property and deciding what genuinely needs attention.

1. Assess Your Home Before Selling From the Street

Start outside.

Walk across the road and look back at your property.

What do you notice first?

Is the lawn maintained? Are the gardens tidy? Does the driveway need cleaning? Are gutters, fences and exterior paintwork in reasonable condition?

Then walk towards the front door as though you've never been there before.

The entrance is one of the first areas buyers experience up close, so look at the front door, lighting, pathway and surrounding garden.

You don't necessarily need to spend a fortune improving street appeal. Often it's the basic maintenance and presentation that makes the biggest difference.

2. Walk Through the Front Door as a Buyer

Now walk inside and pay attention to your immediate reaction.

Does the entrance feel light and welcoming?

Is there too much furniture?

Can you see through to other parts of the home?

Is there somewhere obvious to put shoes, bags and everyday clutter?

Buyers start forming opinions almost immediately. I want those first few moments to reinforce the property's strengths rather than draw attention to things that could easily have been fixed.

3. Look for Maintenance You've Stopped Seeing

Walk through every room specifically looking for maintenance issues.

Marks on walls, chipped paint, loose handles, cracked tiles, damaged blinds, leaking taps, deteriorating silicone and doors that don't close properly can all become part of a buyer's overall impression.

One minor problem probably won't concern anyone.

Several visible maintenance issues can make buyers start wondering whether there are other problems they can't see.

Make a list before you start fixing anything. Then decide which items actually deserve attention.

4. Look at Your Furniture, Not Just Your Rooms

Sometimes a room feels too small because there's simply too much furniture in it.

That doesn't mean you need to empty the house.

I don't believe every trace of personality needs to disappear when you're selling.

But buyers do need to understand the size and function of each room.

If they have to squeeze around furniture or can't see where their own furniture might go, removing a few pieces may make more difference than redecorating the entire room.

5. Declutter Without Making Your Home Feel Empty

Decluttering is useful, but there's a balance.

Kitchen benches don't need to be completely bare. Bookshelves don't need to be empty. Every photograph doesn't have to disappear.

The aim isn't to make the property look unlived in.

It's to remove enough excess so buyers notice the home rather than the belongings.

Pay particular attention to wardrobes, cupboards and storage areas. Buyers open them.

If every cupboard is overflowing, it can unintentionally suggest that the property doesn't have enough storage.

6. Check How Light Each Room Feels

Natural light can completely change the way buyers experience a property.

Open blinds and curtains.

Clean the windows.

Trim plants that are unnecessarily blocking light.

Look at whether dark furnishings or heavy window coverings are making rooms feel smaller.

Then check the artificial lighting.

A dark hallway or poorly lit room may simply need better globes or a more appropriate light fitting rather than an expensive renovation.

7. Be Careful Before Renovating Kitchens and Bathrooms

Kitchens and bathrooms attract a lot of attention when homeowners start preparing to sell.

They're also where you can spend a lot of money very quickly.

Before replacing anything, ask whether the room genuinely needs renovation.

A dated but clean, functional kitchen is very different from one that's damaged or poorly maintained.

Sometimes new handles, tapware, lighting, grout or a thorough clean can improve the presentation considerably.

Sometimes a renovation is justified.

And sometimes you're better off doing absolutely nothing.

8. Assess Your Outdoor Areas as Living Space

Here in Queensland, outdoor living can be an important part of how buyers assess a home.

Look at patios, decks, pools and gardens as though they're additional rooms.

Are they easy to use?

Do they connect well with the house?

Is outdoor furniture helping buyers understand the space or making it feel crowded?

Again, you don't necessarily need to create something new.

You may simply need to present what you already have better.

9. Think About How the Property Will Photograph

This is something homeowners sometimes overlook.

The first inspection of your property will probably happen online, not at the front door.

Walk around and imagine each room as a photograph.

What will the camera see?

A beautiful room can photograph poorly if it's cluttered or badly arranged. Likewise, a relatively ordinary room can look fantastic when it's light, clean and well presented.

Your photographs need to give buyers a reason to want to see the property in person.

10. Separate Your Taste From the Property

This can be difficult.

You may love a particular colour, feature or renovation because you chose it.

That doesn't necessarily mean buyers will value it in the same way.

But the opposite is also true.

Don't automatically remove every unusual feature simply because someone tells you buyers only want neutral homes.

Some personality can make a property memorable.

The question I ask is whether something adds character or creates an objection.

There's a significant difference.

11. Make Three Lists

Once you've assessed the entire property, I'd divide everything you've noticed into three categories:

Must do - maintenance or presentation issues that should genuinely be addressed.

Could do - improvements that may help, depending on cost and likely benefit.

Don't do - work that's unlikely to improve your overall selling outcome enough to justify the expense.

That last list can be just as valuable as the first one.

Preparing a property for sale isn't about finding as many things as possible to spend money on.

It's about deciding where your money and effort will make a difference.

Get Advice Before You Start Spending

Once you've lived in a home for years, it can be difficult to see it objectively.

That's why I think it's useful to assess the property before booking trades, ordering new flooring or deciding the kitchen has to go.

My Preparing Your Home for Sale guide goes into more detail about getting a property ready for the market and is a useful next step once you've completed your initial assessment.

Assess First. Spend Second.

When you assess your home before selling, you're not looking for everything that's wrong with it.

You're trying to identify what buyers are likely to notice, what may affect their perception of the property and what is actually worth addressing.

Some homes need considerable preparation.

Others need surprisingly little.

The important thing is to know the difference before you start spending money.