When it comes to selling a property, there are many tricks of the trade you can employ to improve your sale price.

From a lick of paint to simply mowing the lawn, find out which focus-areas and tasks will have the biggest impact for the lowest cost and understand what it is people are really looking for.

1. The Walls

Painting is always on the top of the list because for every dollar you spend on painting you can probably get back over a thousand. Put simply, a paint job will give you bang for buck! So, what colours should you go with?

Keep it as neutral as possible without being stark. There are so many white paints out there, so a lot of it will come down to the light your space has, and the tones of furniture and flooring.

If you’re changing your floor you should think about the paint at the same time, and vice versa. White paint will reflect the colour of the floor.

2. The Floor

Flooring isn’t an easy one to change-up, but sometimes the existing flooring is just completely worn out, dirty and daggy. If you’re dealing with 20-year-old carpet, it’s going to benefit from an overhaul.

Choosing new flooring for a house on the market should depend on the type of home you have and who is looking to buy it.

If you’re selling a home that’s going to attract home buyers (as opposed to investors), then you really need to reflect that in the flooring. I’d be going for a really good engineered floorboard that you can put straight over the top of your existing floors.”

If you’re planning on selling to property investors, look instead to a quality, cost-effective choice, like a low-cost laminate, for instance.

When it comes to carpet both renters and buyers still look for that softness underfoot in bedrooms and upstairs areas.

Finally, consider the architecture and style of the rest of the home when picking a colour or style of flooring. Be sure to look at the light in the rooms and also the architecture of the house, because some homes lend themselves to a lighter or darker flooring depending on the period of style.

3. The Street Frontage

People often drive past a house before they’ve even decided if they’re going to go look inside, so street appeal is really important.

De-clutter and get rid of anything that shouldn’t be there, mulch the garden, put in a new lawn if you can – these things are relatively inexpensive when it comes to payback on the day of auction.

Furthermore, if you’re painting a home’s internal walls anyway, you may as well consider touching up the exterior too.

4. The Kitchen

Kitchens and bathrooms are a large seller of homes. However, before you gut your entire kitchen, make sure a renovation is worth your while.

If you’re going to update the kitchen, make sure you’re going to be able to reflect that in the sale price. Otherwise, just clean it up, paint it if it’s daggy, de-clutter and add a few choice styling items.

To help you decide whether you should redo your kitchen, speak to your selling agent. They should have a good idea of the demographic your home appeals to (first home buyers, investors, young families etc.) and whether or not they are more likely to expect a fully-equipped kitchen versus a fixer-upper.

5. The Lighting – including the Windows

Clean your windows! It sounds crazy but with clean windows people can see straight out to the yard and they feel they have more of a connection to the home.

You might also consider trimming back any trees that obstruct views or light. In fact, a well-lit home is high on the priority list for most buyers.

Look at your light fittings. You may need to get rid of them and opt for something that allows more light to come through.

Source: realestate.com.au