How to present your home for sale when it’s stinking hot
Your first opening is days away, it’s hotter than the Sahara desert and your home feels as though it’s melting into its stumps. How will you ever present it for sale?
Yes, the sea is blue and the skies are clear, but when it reaches silly temperatures, the Australian summer can be a daunting time to put your house on the market. After all, your walls drip with condensation, bugs nest in every nook and cranny and your plants droop like sulky children. How will you ever present your home in an appealing light come open time?
Here are our top tips:
Be proactive in keeping your house cool
It may seem obvious, but if you keep all blinds and curtains closed the day prior and the morning of your open inspections, it will help keep your home cool. You can open them just before interested buyers arrive if you’re keen to show how beautifully light your home is.
Invest in good air conditioning
If you already have a good air conditioning unit, a hot day is the perfect chance to show it off. If, on the other hand, it’s burbling and cranking to cope in the heat, it might be worth investing in a better system. Enticing buyers with a cool house to escape the heat is an effective sales tactic and you’re likely to recover the invested funds.
Let your house breathe
When the heat rolls on from one day to the next, it’s tempting to hide away behind closed doors and blinds taking cold showers and eating ice-cream. Only your home soon begins to smell like a pair of old man’s shoes – not exactly appealing to potential buyers.
So, make sure you open some windows for a few hours each day to ventilate your home. If mosquitos and bugs are a problem, light citronella candles or sandalwood sticks and position them near the windows as an effective repellent.
Sprinkle carpet freshener before you vacuum to omit musty smells and burn some mild-scented candles before and during open inspections.
Use refreshing concepts
In the heat, we’re drawn to fresh things; a glass bowl of lemons and limes in the kitchen, a bouquet of wild flowers in the living room and a lilac-scented candle burning in the bedroom. Use concepts like these to highlight the appeal of summer and tap into buyers’ senses.
Bring out your summertime features
If you have a water feature, turn it on. A pool? Make sure it looks so appealing, buyers will want to strip off and jump straight in. An old tree that sheds shade across your garden? Hang up a hammock and let buyers picture themselves taking a nap or reading. It’s about creating spaces buyers can visualise themselves enjoying.