Selling your house: How to market effectively

In the next part of our property special on how to sell your house, Lea Beven of Limecastle talks you through marketing your property and how to look at it through a buyer's eyes.

See part one: How people search for property

Part two: How to market your property

Keeping the property clean and tidy is not the only thing you need to do to sell it. There is more of a psychological view towards buying a home for most people.

Firstly, it is normally the female that chooses the home - it is generally, although it sounds old-fashioned, the husband who wants to make the wife happy.

So your property really needs to impress her. Ask a female friend to walk around your property and give a blunt and brutal opinion - it can be painful, but it will help.

Poor preparation and a lack of effort can mean you can end up giving away thousands of pounds

Imagine having the money sat in front of you in £10 notes and then just picking it up and giving it to someone else.

Crazy, huh?

So don't ignore these tips and rush into a sale due to desperation or greed, as you could lose out big-time.

We all know how equity works and the home is usually the largest asset that most people own.

Tied up in this is your money and the size of the surplus/equity cash is dependant on how much you can sell your property for.

My tip: Dress your property to sell – literally. If you are doing this as a profession get yourself down the car boot sales and auctions and pick up some bits and pieces that make your property show off its full potential.

For example, if you have a Victorian house still with some original features – buy some little bits and pieces that compliment the house (curtains and ornaments are really cheap at a car boot sale)

Part three: An objective look at the property

So how do people look at a property? Well they are not really looking at your belongings, are they?

Wrong – if your property is full of distractions, then that is all they can look at.

If they cannot physically get into a room, then they will see the property as small and they will worry whether they will be able to fit their own things into it.

You may have bought the property to sell with an idea in your mind of what you would like to do to it if you were to live in it – but remember, you are not the person that will live there.

You may have lived in the property for years and have your stamp on it. It is probably comfortable for you and is designed to your taste so how could anyone not like it?

You could be wrong. Are you confident that you are going down the right route?

My tip: Take a totally objective look at the property and look at it from an outsider point of view.

Pick up a pen and paper and make a report on how you think people will see each room. You probably already know that there are things you could put away to de-clutter or simple things that you can fix.

Tomorrow: Fixing and repairing your property and is it worth spending money on refurbishing?