Preparing your apartment for sale.

Property is an emotional purchase because it’s not only a huge financial commitment, but it also provides personal security and safety for you and your family. During an inspection (open home), a buyer has just a short time to assess and consider all things about your property.

This is your opportunity to capture that emotion and build on it.

Get professional photos: Sorry your iPhone just doesn’t cut it and you’re not selling an 2005 Subaru. Build emotion with clean crisp professional photos and you could increase the turnout at the open home.

First impressions: Clean, clean, clean. Removal excess personal items and allow a space for imagination. A clean, fresh light filled space with fresh flowers/ plants will allow a potential buyer to see themselves living there. If you stuff is stacked in the corner, move it into storage.

What if it is tenanted? An unhappy tenant can jeopardise a sale whereas a happy tenant can help with presentation and provide investor appeal. Your tenant is a source of income so why people don’t celebrate that relationship more often, I have no idea. If you intend on selling during a tenancy, make sure your tenant is aware of every step of your sales journey and is consistently updated. It’s not the tenant’s responsibility to make it look like a display home so if you want to achieve top dollar, pay for a weekly clean yourself – they will appreciate it too. If they have asked for a rent reduction during the campaign – do it (within reason of course).

Staging: If it’s vacant, staging an apartment with modern furniture will add to that emotion particularly if the property is old and tired. Staging can be expensive particularly if the property is on the market for longer than 1 month so consider if the apartment or the market is suitable for staging.

Small things you can do yourself: Replace/ repaint high touch areas like those old yellowing plastic light switches (electrician required), door handles and knobs. A full repaint can make an apartment look like new. If you’ve never painted a room before, leave it to the professionals – amateur works stands out.

If you’re not willing to spend money on presentation, don’t expect a quick sale or top dollar. Did I mention cleaning?

How can Apartment Consulting help you? Property research, due diligence and fact sharing. We are experts in all apartments from studios to penthouses, off the plan to heritage listed. We offer a range of unbiased pre-purchase consumer reports for all budgets that will give you a better understanding of your next apartment investment.

Find out more are www.apartmentconsulting.com.au