How do I get the best price

Invite an Anthony James valuation specialist to discuss the options within your home. Even small suggested improvements, such as paint colours or furniture arrangement can go a long way towards improving the look, feel and value of your home.

Overgrown or patchy lawns and oversized bushes will cause your home to stand out — in a bad way. The good news is that taming your jungle is an easy fix. For a few hundred pounds, hire a lawn service company to trim your lawn and shape your hedges. Your “curb appeal” will go from messy to maintained without blowing your budget.
Gardens can add as much as 15% to the value of your home so its money well invested.

The size of your home dramatically affects the value, but square footage isn’t the only space that counts. Visual space or how large a home feels also counts. The key is to make each room in your house feel larger. Replace heavy closed curtains with vertical blinds or shutters to let light in — a sunny room feels larger and more open. Also, try adding a single large mirror to a room to visually double the space. Finally, clear the clutter. The more clutter, furniture and plain old stuff you have in a room, the more cramped it will feel. For less than £150, add an attractive shelving unit to an underused space and store your clutter out of sight.

Bathroom updates are always a smart move. Even if you can’t afford a full remodel, small changes such as re-painting the walls, re-grouting tiles and replacing old lighting will update the room without denting your wallet.

Walk around your home and make a list of all the little things that are broken or in need of repair. Individually small repairs might not seem important. However, if every room had just one thing wrong, they could add up to create the impression that your home has been neglected. A well maintained property breeds confidence in a buyer, and a confident buyer pays a fuller price. If you don’t feel comfortable tackling the repairs yourself, hire a handyman for a day and watch your “to do” list disappear. Staying on top of maintenance eliminates problems down the road should you decide to sell.

Nothing turns buyers off more than the thought that they will immediately need to replace all of the flooring in a home. Take a look at your home’s flooring; Are your carpets and area rugs stained or worn? Ideally, you may want to replace them all, but if a limited budget puts a snag in that plan, start by replacing the carpet in the room that shows the most wear and tear and replace the others as your finances allow.

For a fresh perspective on the value of your home, walk across the street, turn around and ask yourself, “Does my house have curb appeal?” Does your home look attractive, welcoming and structurally sound at first glance? Make a list of ways to enhance the positive and eliminate the negative. If you have a nice curvy walkway, accentuate it with flowers or lanterns. If the first thing a visitor sees is your big wide garage, try to guide their eyes into a beautiful front yard, or paint your front door red to guide the eye there. These things add value. Take a digital photo and look at your home in black and white. When the colour is removed, the truth comes out. That is where you see the cracks in the walls and the glaring flaws.

At Anthony James our professionals will tell you the room that adds the most value is always the Kitchen. Do whatever you can to upgrade this room within your budget. Clean and tidy the walls and units and remove any items stored above the wall units. If you’re including the appliances make sure they are not missing any buttons or parts.

New light fittings are a fairly inexpensive way to make your property look more attractive and add value. It’s worth spending a couple of hundred pounds here as it will dramatically improve the overall look and feel of the house.